The story of Edward Bernays is an interesting one. Born in 1891, Bernays was the nephew of Sigmund Freud, the well-known psychoanalyst. Bernays was influenced by his famous uncle as he revolutionized public relations. He was known, in fact, as the “father of public relations.”
Bernays approach to public relations employed techniques of influence or as some would say, manipulation. He developed new ways to change public opinion and used his skills for political campaigns as well as consumer purchasing. But his techniques, although influenced by his uncle, were also deeply rooted in propaganda. He held the belief that people, at large, could be guided and controlled with the strategic use of information.
He would use his techniques during WWI when he worked for the U.S. government to promote war efforts and shape positive public sentiment. Employed by the government from 1917 to 1919, Bernays was a member of the Committee on Public Information (CPI) and was responsible for promoting public support for the war effort.
His charter was to trigger a sense of patriotism that would not only encourage enlistment but also generate money through the purchase of war bonds and promote anger towards the enemy.
After the war, Bernays refocused himself on the profession as we know it today, called “public relations.” Using the techniques of psychological coercion, he positioned public relations as the bridge between organizations and the general public. With his understanding of motivation through fear, aspiration, and desire, Bernays could create highly effective campaigns. And because these desires are often unconscious, people would not clearly understand what was happening to them.
One well-known example of this was his effective campaign encouraging women to smoke. In the 1920s, Bernays managed to link smoking cigarettes and women’s rights by organizing an event where debutantes marched in a New York City parade while smoking cigarettes, calling those cigarettes “Torches of Freedom.” His efforts increased cigarette sales among women, by appealing to their desire for equal rights.
What made Bernays approach especially successful was his understanding that products are sold best through stories, much like the freedom-claiming debutantes smoking their torches of freedom. Obviously, freedom and cigarette smoking are not the least bit related, but he crafted a story that gained momentum and created both demand and customer loyalty. And that's what every company wants because loyalty means more sales.
Another notable example is Lucky Strike's "Reach for a Lucky Instead of a Sweet" campaign. As clearly stated in the tagline, Bernays worked with the American Tobacco Company to promote Lucky Strike cigarettes as an alternative to high-sugar food. He targeted women, who were more susceptible to worrying about weight gain, in order to play on their fears and emotions and convince them that smoking would solve their problems.
Bernays was also behind the floating test that some may remember with Ivory Soap. The claim was that Ivory Soap was pure enough to float in water. Procter & Gamble revived their brand, which had been suffering from lagging sales, with this campaign of purity.
And, those ubiquitous green tennis balls can also be credited to Bernays. Believe it or not. He orchestrated a publicity event where various people, including celebrities, played tennis with new green balls, instead of the common white ones of the day. Bernays managed to create a lot of interest in this new green ball, helping a rubber manufacturing company called B.F. Goodrich to increase their sales.
Bernays, at one point, even created the “Committee for the Study and Promotion of the Sanitary Dispensing of Food and Drink,” in order to promote the sanitary importance and efficacy of Dixie cups. Drinking from a disposable cup, the impromptu committee would say, was more sanitary than reusable cups.
Critics will say that using mass manipulation techniques is wrong, and many have said just that about Bernays’s tactics. If companies employed simple truth, objectively speaking, people could evaluate and make a purchase decision on the merit of the product alone, they might argue. And when does persuasion become flat-out manipulation? That line is somewhat blurred, but in the eyes of Bernays’s skeptics, he crossed the line regularly. Manipulating the masses.
So, what makes us so susceptible to influence?
We are sensitive to emotional appeals and are easily influenced by them. These appeals tap into our desires, like freedom for those debutantes in the parade and a thin figure for those Lucky Strike smokers. These campaigns work because they use your emotions and fears against you.
We are very social by nature – we need each other for survival emotionally and physically. This creates a tendency to find social acceptance through similarity and, oftentimes, conformity. We can be easily influenced to be part of the group because our caveman's brain realizes it will help us in the long run.
We tend to idolize other people, whether they are well-known, well-connected, or simply wealthy. Bernays used people in positions of influence to convince the masses to change their behavior, from starting the smoking habit to buying green tennis balls or buying Ivory soap.
We do not fully understand what we’re being sold on a daily basis, and that is part of our influenceable nature. We may look for the easiest option or one that has the support of our favorite actor. Celebrity endorsements worked very well in Bernays’s day and have only become more powerful. And more ubiquitous. Instagram, as one notable example, has a cadre of “influencers” that convince people to buy a whole host of products.
Next time you really want to buy something, maybe you should ask yourself why! Bernays may have something to do with what's influenced your desire.
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