Edward Bernays

Edward Bernays - nephew of Sigmund Freud

Edward Louis Bernays (November 22, 1891 – March 9, 1995) is considered one of the fathers of the field of <a title="Public relations" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_relations">public relations</a> along with <a title="Ivy Lee" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivy_Lee">Ivy Lee</a>. Combining the ideas of <a title="Gustave Le Bon" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_Le_Bon">Gustave Le Bon</a> and <a title="Wilfred Trotter" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilfred_Trotter">Wilfred Trotter</a> on <a title="Crowd psychology" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowd_psychology">crowd psychology</a> with the <a title="Psychoanalysis" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychoanalysis">psychoanalytical</a> ideas of his uncle, <a title="Sigmund Freud" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigmund_Freud">Sigmund Freud</a>, Bernays was one of the first to attempt to manipulate public opinion using the <a title="Subconscious" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subconscious">subconscious</a>.

He felt this manipulation was necessary in society, which he regarded as <a title="Irrational" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irrational">irrational</a> and dangerous as a result of the 'herd instinct' that Trotter had described. <a title="Adam Curtis" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Curtis">Adam Curtis</a>'s award-winning 2002 documentary for the <a title="BBC" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC">BBC</a>, <a title="The Century of the Self" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Century_of_the_Self">The Century of the Self</a>, pinpoints Bernays as the originator of modern public relations, and Bernays was named one of the 100 most influential Americans of the 20th century by <a title="Life magazine" class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_magazine">Life magazine</a>.<a title="" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays#cite_note-0">[1]</a>

<h2>Philosophy and public relations</h2>

Bernays' papers, just recently opened, contain a wealth of information on the founding of the field in the twenties. In fact, The Biography of an Idea: Memoirs of Public Relations Counsel Edward L. Bernays (1965) contains one of the very best overviews of the decade. Many of the essays selected for the Coolidge-Consumerism collection from the Bernays Papers were written as early drafts for The Biography of an Idea.

Bernays, who pursued his calling in New York City 1919-1963, styled himself a "public relations counsel." He had very pronounced views on the differences between what he did and what people in <a title="Advertising" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advertising">advertising</a> did. A pivotal figure in the orchestration of elaborate corporate advertising campaigns and multi-media consumer spectacles, he nevertheless is among those listed in the acknowledgments section of the seminal government social science study Recent Social Trends in the United States (1933).

On a par with Bernays as the most sought-after public relations counsel of the decade was <a title="Ivy Lee" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivy_Lee">Ivy Ledbetter Lee</a>, among whose chief clients were <a title="John D. Rockefeller" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Rockefeller">John D. Rockefeller</a>, Sr., Bethlehem Steel, Armour & Company, and the Pennsylvania Railroad. Lee is represented in the Coolidge-Consumerism collection by "Publicity: Some of the Things It Is and Is Not" (1925).

Bernays, however, was a philosopher of promotion, and it was probably that philosophical quality, evident in his writings and speeches, as well as the sheer exuberant creativity and intelligence of his publicity blitzes, which enabled him to impart to his own efforts and to the field more generally a sense of stature, scope and profundity.

The belief that propaganda and news were legitimate tools of his business, and his ability to offer philosophical justifications for these beliefs that ultimately embraced the whole democratic way of life, in Bernays' mind set his work in public relations apart from what ad men did. The Bernays essays A Public Relations Counsel States His Views (1927) and <a title="Propaganda (book)" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_%28book%29">This Business of Propaganda</a> (1928) show that Bernays regarded advertising men as special pleaders, merely paid to persuade people to accept an idea or commodity. The public relations counsel, on the other hand, he saw as an Emersonian-like creator of events that dramatized new concepts and perceptions, and even influenced the actions of leaders and groups in society.

Bernays' vision was of a utopian society in which the dangerous libidinal energies that lurked just below the surface of every individual could be harnessed and channeled by a corporate elite for economic benefit. Through the use of mass production, big business could fulfill constant craving of the inherently irrational and desire driven masses, simultaneously securing the niche of a mass production economy (even in peacetime), as well as sating the dangerous animal urges that threatened to tear society apart if left unquelled.

Bernays' magisterial, philosophical touch is in evidence in Manipulating Public Opinion (1928) when he writes: "This is an age of mass production. In the mass production of materials a broad technique has been developed and applied to their distribution. In this age, too, there must be a technique for the mass distribution of ideas." Yet he recognized the potential danger in so grand a scheme and in This Business of Propaganda (1928), as elsewhere, sounded the great caveat that adds a grace note to his ambitious vision: a public relations counsel "must never accept a retainer or assume a position which puts his duty to the groups he represents above his duty to society."

As is evident from the description of his campaign to publicize the Dodge cars, Bernays had a particular gift for the marketing strategy called the "tie-up" or "tie-in" -- in which one venue or opportunity or occasion for promoting a consumer product, for example, radio advertising, is linked to another, say, newspaper advertising, and even, at times, to a third, say a department store exhibition salesroom featuring the item, and possibly even a fourth, such as an important holiday, for example Thrift Week.

In addition to famous corporate clients, such as the <a title="Dodge Brothers" class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_Brothers">Dodge Brothers</a>, <a title="Procter & Gamble" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procter_%26_Gamble">Procter & Gamble</a>, the <a title="American Tobacco Company" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Tobacco_Company">American Tobacco Company</a>, <a title="Cartier SA" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartier_SA">Cartier Inc.</a>, <a title="Best Foods" class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Best_Foods">Best Foods</a>, <a title="CBS" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CBS">CBS</a>, the <a title="United Fruit Company" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Fruit_Company">United Fruit Company</a>, <a title="General Electric" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Electric">General Electric</a>, <a title="Dodge" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge">Dodge Motors</a>, the <a title="Fluoridation" class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluoridation">fluoridationists</a> of the <a title="Public Health Service" class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Health_Service">Public Health Service</a>, Knox-Gelatin, and innumerable other big names, Bernays also worked on behalf of many non-profit institutions and organizations. These included, to name just a few, the Committee on Publicity Methods in Social Work (1926-1927), the Jewish Mental Health Society (1928), the Book Publishers Research Institute (1930-1931), the New York Infirmary for Women and Children (1933), the Committee for Consumer Legislation (1934), the Friends of Danish Freedom and Democracy (1940), the Citywide Citizens' Committee on Harlem (1942), and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (1954-1961). For the U.S. Government, he worked for the President's Emergency Committee on Employment (1930-1932) and President <a title="Calvin Coolidge" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_Coolidge">Calvin Coolidge</a>.

In 1950’s some of his ideas and vision, helped in creating INDIA as the Democratic Republic of Southeast Asia by having the People’s Congress of India to adapt the Bill of Rights. Freedom of Press, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religion, Freedom of Assembly, Freedom of Petition which were added to the constitution of India.

The amusing Bernays Typescript on Public Relations Work and Politics, 1924: "Breakfast with Coolidge" shows that President Coolidge too was among his clients. Bernays was hired to improve Coolidge's image before the 1924 presidential election.

Another selection from his papers, the Typescript on Publicizing the Physical Culture Industry, 1927: "Bernarr Macfadden", reveals Bernays' opinion of the leader of the physical culture movement. Yet another client, department store visionary Edward A. Filene, was the subject of the Typescript on a Boston Department Store Magnate. Bernays' Typescript on the Importance of Samuel Strauss: "1924 - Private Life" shows that the public relations counsel and his wife were fans of consumerism critic Samuel Strauss.

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<dd>Some of the campaigns Bernays worked on:</dd>

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<li>In the 1920s, working for the American Tobacco Company, he sent a group of young models to march in the New York City parade. He then told the press that a group of <a title="Women's rights" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_rights">women's rights</a> marchers would light "Torches of Freedom". On his signal, the models lit Lucky Strike cigarettes in front of the eager photographers. The New York Times (1 April 1929) printed: "Group of Girls Puff at Cigarettes as a Gesture of 'Freedom'". This helped to break the taboo against women smoking in public. During this decade he also handled publicity for the <a title="NAACP" class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NAACP">NAACP</a>.<a title="" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays#cite_note-2">[3]</a></li>

<li>Bernays once engineered a "pancake breakfast" with vaudevillians for <a title="Calvin Coolidge" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_Coolidge">Calvin Coolidge</a> in what is widely considered one of the first overt media acts for a president.</li>

<li>Bernays used his uncle <a title="Sigmund Freud" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigmund_Freud">Sigmund Freud</a>'s ideas to help convince the public, among other things, that bacon and eggs was the true all-American breakfast.<a title="" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays#cite_note-3">[4]</a></li>

<li>In October 1929, Bernays was involved in promoting "Light's Golden Jubilee." The event, which spanned across several major cities in the U.S., was designed to celebrate the 50th anniversary of <a title="Thomas Edison" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Edison">Thomas Edison</a>'s invention of the <a title="Light-bulb" class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light-bulb">light-bulb</a> (note: the light-bulb was in fact invented by <a title="Joseph Swan" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Swan">Joseph Swan</a>). The publicity elements of the Jubilee – including the special issuance of a U.S. postage stamp and Edison's "re-creating" the invention of the light bulb for a nationwide radio audience – provided evidence of Bernays' love for big ideas and "<a title="Ballyhoo" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballyhoo">ballyhoo</a>."</li>

<li>Bernays helped the <a title="Aluminum Company of America" class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminum_Company_of_America">Aluminum Company of America</a> (Alcoa) and other special interest groups to convince the American public that <a title="Water fluoridation" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_fluoridation">water fluoridation</a> was safe and beneficial to human health. This was achieved by using the <a title="American Dental Association" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Dental_Association">American Dental Association</a> in a highly successful media campaign.</li>

<li>In the 1930s, his <a title="Dixie Cup" class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixie_Cup">Dixie Cup</a> campaign was designed to convince consumers that only disposable cups were sanitary.</li>

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Beyond his contributions to these famous and powerful clients, Bernays revolutionized public relations by combining traditional press agentry with the techniques of psychology and sociology to create what one writer has called "the science of ballyhoo.

<a href="http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/brain3.htm">http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/brain3.htm</a>

Bernays goes on to tell us how, in the 1930s, most large American Companies and industries including the National Association of Manufacturers, Rockefeller Center, General Motors, Standard Oil Co., J.P. Morgan and Co. etc., all became involved with use of the new public relations industry. [enter Wasson!!]

Bernays himself was appointed a member of the President's Emergency Committee for Employment (President Hoover), and goes on to say that there was even a significant change in public attitude by bankers. In growing numbers they sought professional advice and in 1939 Bernays' own firm was working with the Bank of America on the West Coast and in Washington; p106-8, quote:

That America was becoming more aware of the nature and importance of public relations was further evidenced by the active interest now shown in the field by newspapers, magazines, universities, social scientists, research organizations, and political parties. ...But the new era was emphasized when Mr. Flynn spoke of the modern public relations expert as "a social psychologist engaged in carrying out in actual practice and according to newer theories that branch of psychology which August Comte and later Herbert Spencer recognized as having a definite relation to sociology. ...

In connection with these activities, we initiated a practice which became widespread toward the end of the decade - the creation of institutes and foundations as public interest bodies of private profit organizations...

These bureaus, service institutes, and foundations functioned as nonprofit institutions in the public interest, but were always tied up with a profit organization. ...

By this time the colleges and universities of the United States were keenly aware of the dependence of government, industry, and all other social groups on public opinion. EQ. EA.

Bernays tells how his firm made a survey of American colleges and universities in 1937 to find that they now offered a wide range of courses devoted to propaganda and public opinion. Interest in propaganda at that time even extended so far as to expose propaganda; however, exposure did not prosper.

Public relations professionals also took a keen interest in the Jackson Committee. "Psychological warfare must be an integral part of our national policy, not a thing apart," said public relations pioneer Edward L. Bernays.  "The government should use social scientists who understand our activities as they relate to other countries." (84)   Thomas J. Deegan, Jr., vice president and director of C&O Railway Company, told participants in a public relations workshop that the U.S. was "naive" in its counter propaganda and that the government had "traded down" public relations by using inadequately trained "press-release men." (85)

84    "Eisenhower's 'cold war' committee to call on PR men."  Time.  February 28, 1953.  Clipping from Jackson Committee Records.  Box 14.  op. cit.

85    Ellis L. Phillips.  Memorandum of notes and impressions of Workshop Panel on U.S. International Public Relations, sponsored by the American Public Relations Association, on March 3, 1953.  Jackson Committee Records.  Box 13.  op. cit.

http://people.ku.edu/~dguth/Jackson1.html

US Library of Congress

Bernays is the father of PR, nephew of Freud. It appears that Bernays and Wasson at least held correspondence or research material. 

<a title="blocked::http://www.loc.gov/rr/mss/text/bernays.html#ms003016_controlaccess_Names_3" href="http://www.loc.gov/rr/mss/text/bernays.html#ms003016_controlaccess_Names_3">http://www.loc.gov/rr/mss/text/bernays.html#ms003016_controlaccess_Names_3</a>

Bernay’s collection:

Drafts, galley proofs, notes, research material, correspondence, and inquiries. Books are arranged in chronological order of publication. Research notes for Biography of an Idea are arranged alphabetically by subject.

BOX I:459

Wasson, Gordon

Enter Edward Bernays, the father of propaganda

And there’s one more connection here. Wasson was friends with Edward Bernays, the father of propaganda and spin, who was also a friend of Henry Luce and, as it turns out, was a major influence on Goebbels, the man in charge of Nazi propaganda.

The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. ...We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. ...In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons...who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.<a id="ednref1" href="#edn1" name="_ednref1" title="">[i]</a>

~ Edward Bernays

It was based on a hunch alone that I searched out the ties between Wasson and Bernays. The following was the only citation I could find revealing that the two had spent extensive time together, though, no doubt, in some other archive, there is much more yet to be discovered.

In a file located at the U.S. Library of Congress is an odd draft, likely intended to be some form of propaganda or endorsement, wherein Bernays discusses his relationship with Wasson. This letter also reveals that Wasson and Valentina had adopted Masha, and “lived on East End Avenue.” Bernays further states:

Gordon Wasson was one of those newspapermen who consciously or unconsciously recognized the implications of the contacts he made in that capacity. He found these contacts important, outstanding. This led to other places and other things. In the New York Tribune financial department he had made contact with the house on the corner, Broad and Wall – J. P. Morgan. Then he had given up newspaper work and become associated with the home [Morgan’s “house on the corner”]. First he was in the publicity department. When Martin Eagen died, he assumed the function of publicity man with J. Pierpont Morgan. He was highly respected by his own people. He was intelligent, smooth. His mind was a highly, splendidly geared functioning mechanism. […] Wasson made it his business and he got pleasure out of it too, of associating with a broad segment of society. This was not unimportant in maintaining contacts for the house on the corner [Broad and Wall – J.P. Morgan], with the rest of the world.

Not until long after I knew him did I find out in [Prof. Raymond] Moley’s book “The First Seven Years” [sic] published in 1939, a reference to Gordon Wasson. Moley wrote a memo in 1934 and made recommendations for the Stock Exchange Commission membership. Next to Gordon Wasson, whom he recommended, he added, “a resident of New Jersey, handled foreign securities for Guaranty Company, has acted a liaison between Wall Street and Landis, Cohen and Corcoran because his friendship with them was known downtown. Knows security business and the Act thoroughly having helped in its drafting, very well-liked by treasury and commerce, would certainly be recommended by the Guaranty and Stock Exchange and therefore would be acceptable to Wall Street.

Bernays’ letter concludes with:

I saw Wasson very often between 1934 and ’44; I never had the slightest inkling he had been thought of for this position. His conversation was bland, never personal, always on the most general subjects.<a id="ednref2" href="#edn2" name="_ednref2" title="">[ii]</a>

~ Edward Bernays

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<a id="edn1" href="#ednref1" name="_edn1" title="">[i]</a> Edward Bernays, Propaganda, 1928, Ch. 1, P. 1.

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<a id="edn2" href="#ednref2" name="_edn2" title="">[ii]</a> US Library of Congress, Bernays collection: Part I: Book File, 1890-1965, n.d.  BOX I:459, Wasson, Gordon

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<h1>Edward Bernays</h1>

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<th colspan="2" >Edward Bernays</th>

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Edward Bernays</td>

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Born

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Edward Bernays

November 22, 1891

Vienna, Austria

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Died

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March 9, 1995

Cambridge (MA), United States

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Edward Louis Bernays was the nephew of <a href="http://infowars.wikia.com/wiki/Sigmund_Freud" title="Sigmund Freud">Sigmund Freud</a> and one of the fathers of modern advertising (known in the beginning of the 20th century as simply 'propaganda'). His methods involved the psychoanalytical theories of his uncle - exploiting the subconscious and playing on unconscious desires - not just for marketing purposes, but also for shaping public opinion.

He was an advisor to several United States Presidents, including <a href="http://infowars.wikia.com/wiki/Woodrow_Wilson" title="Woodrow Wilson">Woodrow Wilson</a> and <a href="http://infowars.wikia.com/wiki/Calvin_Coolidge?action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Calvin Coolidge (page does not exist)">Calvin Coolidge</a>.

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They wind you up because they know what makes you tick. Tavistock Clinic studied shellshock (post-traumatic stress) in WWI but switched to developing psychological warfare in 1922.  Rather than helping traumatized soldiers, it calculated their breaking points. Tavistock shock doctrine now permeates global life. Their social engineers are a Who’s Who:  Freud, Jung, Adler, Melanie Klein, Wilfred Bion, Edward Bernays, Eric Trist, A.K. Rice, Eric Miller, Aldous Huxley, and more.

Freud's nephew, a principle at Tavistock Institute, Edward Bernays is the godfather of propaganda and the "engineered consent" of Madison Avenue. He took Freud's principles of mass psychology and applied them to social exploitation, numbing and manipulation of the masses. He created consumerism.

<a href="http://tavistockagenda.iwarp.com/whats_new_29.html">http://tavistockagenda.iwarp.com/whats_new_29.html</a>

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Edward Bernays

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