Bernays

Edward Bernays

There are certain people who have changed the world in a profound way but remain largely hidden from public view. For whatever reason, they blend in amongst the noise of history and never achieve the prominence that their influence merits. One of those people is Edward Bernays.

The nephew of Sigmund Freud, Bernays spent the early part of his life in Austria. He recalls his mother’s fear of his father, whose attitude towards family dynamics was ‘Victorian’.[1] It was a deeply traditional homelife built around models of hierarchy and power that would form an integral part of Bernays’ work.

[1]                Edward L. Bernays (2015). Biography of an Idea: The Founding Principles of Public Relations. New York, USA: Open Road Media. Retrieved from https://books.google.com/books?id=tFO2BgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

The influence of his uncle is clear in his later work, and it would be hard to overlook the impact of their direct relationship (and frequent correspondence) on his career exploring the deeper reaches of the human psyche.

The family moved to the United States in the 1890s, before Bernays attended University and worked a series of unrelated jobs. His first breakthrough came in 1923, when he published Crystalizing Public Opinion, a book that would lead him to start his own business as a public relations counsel. This period was the first time that Bernays first expressed his belief that people could be persuaded en masse as a kind of collectively malleable group.[1] It was a hugely influential idea, and one which would come to not only dominate his career, but much of the 20^th century.

Thus began Bernays long and distinguished advertising career. Slowly, as his reputation as the leading expert in public relations grew, he spearheaded several high-profile strategic campaigns, and is now often referred to as ‘the father of public relations.’[2] He showcased an uncanny ability to link symbols and objects to the complex internal workings of the mind. Commissioned by the American Tobacco Company to boost the number of women who smoked cigarettes in a male dominated market, he attached the concept of smoking to the suffragist and feminist climate that was becoming more widespread at the time, marketing cigarettes as female ‘torches of freedom’.[3]

It was an extraordinarily deft comparison, but one which left an indelible mark on public relations. However, it was his application of marketing to the political world and propaganda that really makes Bernays so fascinating. Bernays turned his attention to the pursuit of ‘engineering consent’, a term he linked to Freudian concepts of the subconscious and group behaviour.[4] He showed the much of human morality can be moulded and altered by careful portrayals of what people should think. The language is also important, as it implies that our willingness to accept political, economic, or social decisions is something that does not always arise from within ourselves, but can actually be forced upon us by outside forces.

To the Magic Formula of 6, this is of crucial importance. Bernays’ pioneering work showcased how vulnerable people are to images and narratives. It showed that even callous expression of human cruelty like war could be presented as just struggles of good against evil. His work prompted the question ‘are we fooled by the hidden agenda of others?’ in the Magic Formula of 6. It is a crucial question that can help us to understand the reality of life on this planet and arrive at solutions that take into account the complex webs of each problem.

Bernays’ work set the template for the following century of marketing and propaganda. His ideas were implemented on grand scales by governments and interest groups from all corners of the globe, causing politicians to stress the fact that they were employed by the electorate as a tool to present themselves as reliable.[5] It is hard to overstate the influence that this one man had, as his legacy lives on today within the offices of strategists and propagandists and a host of other fields.

The Magic Formula of Six uses Bernays’ theories in an attempt to separate fact from perception. Modern society has become extremely adept at hiding its true intentions behind layers of wordplay and misinformation. Sometimes remedies can even go unimplemented in order to manipulate the public. By using Bernays’ work, this formula can strip back this secrecy and uncover the real solutions previously hidden to us by asking “are we fooled by the hidden agenda of others?”

[1]                Edward L. Bernays (1971). Emergence of the Public Relations Counsel: Principles and Recollections. Business History Review, 45(3), 296-316, p. 297.

[2]                The New York Times. (1995, 10 March). Edward Bernays, ‘Father of Public Relations’ and Leader in Opinion Making, Dies at 103. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/08/16/specials/bernays-obit.html?xid=PS_smithsonian

[3]                Wendy Christensen (2012). Torches of Freedom: Women and Smoking Propaganda. Retrieved from https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2012/02/27/torches-of-freedom-women-and-smoking-propaganda/

[4]                Stewart Justman (1994). Freud and His Nephew. Social Research, 61(2), 457-476, p. 459.

[5]                John Umland (2020). Edward Bernays, Propaganda, and Black Friday. In Thomas G. Endres (ed). The Image of Impact in Literature, Media, and Society. (pp. 67-72). Greeley, Colorado: University of Northern Colorado, p. 71.

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