Bernays had gotten the idea from consulting with a New York psychoanalyst who happened to be a disciple of his uncle, Dr. Bernays was informed that women of the late s were seeking freedom, and smoking represented that freedom. To find a way to convey that concept to the public, Bernays hit upon the stunt of having young women smoke cigarettes while strolling in the annual Easter Sunday parade on Fifth Avenue in New York City. The event was carefully organized and essentially scripted.
Debutantes were recruited to be the smokers, and they were carefully positioned near particular landmarks, such as St. Patrick's Cathedral. Bernays even arranged for a photographer to shoot images just in case any newspaper photographers missed the shot. Patrick's Cathedral, "ostentatiously smoking cigarettes. The tobacco company was happy with the results, as sales to women accelerated.
Bernays devised a way of making children like soap by initiating soap carving contests. Children and adults, too were encouraged to whittle bars of Ivory and the contests became a national fad. Bernays had started in public relations as a press agent for various performers, but by the s he saw himself as a strategist who was elevating the entire business of public relations into a profession.
He preached his theories on shaping public opinion at university lectures and also published books, including Crystallizing Public Opinion and Propaganda He later wrote memoirs of his career.
His books were influential, and generations of public relations professionals have referred to them. Bernays, however, came in for criticism. He was denounced by the magazine Editor and Publisher as "the young Machiavelli of our time," and he was often criticized for operating in deceptive ways.
Bernays has been widely regarded as a pioneer in the field of public relations, and many of his techniques have become commonplace. For instance, the Bernays practice of forming interest groups to advocate for something is reflected daily in the commentators on cable television who represent interest groups and think tanks that seem to exist to confer respectability. Often speaking out in retirement, Bernays, who lived to the age of and died in , was often critical of those who seemed to be his heirs.
He told the New York Times, in an interview conducted in honor of his th birthday, that "any dope, any nitwit, any idiot, can call him or herself a public relations practitioner. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data.
Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile. Measure ad performance. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors.
Share Flipboard Email. Robert McNamara. History Expert. Robert J. McNamara is a history expert and former magazine journalist. He was Amazon. Featured Video. Cite this Article Format. McNamara, Robert. Public Opinion Definition and Examples. Public Relations Information for Business Majors. Anna Freud, Founder of Child Psychoanalysis. Psychodynamic Theory: Approaches and Proponents. Dream Interpretation According to Psychology. 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, and our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of…. It is they who pull the wires that control the public mind. Bernays came by his beliefs honestly. The year after his birth, the Bernays family moved to New York, and Bernays later graduated from Cornell with a degree in agriculture. But instead of farming, he chose a career in journalism, eventually helping the Woodrow Wilson Administration promote the idea that US efforts in World War I were intended to bring democracy to Europe.
Having seen how effective propaganda could be during war, Bernays wondered whether it might prove equally useful during peacetime. He promoted Lucky Strikes by convincing women that the forest green hue of the cigarette pack was among the most fashionable of colors. The success of this effort was manifested in innumerable window displays and fashion shows. In the s, he promoted cigarettes as both soothing to the throat and slimming to the waistline. But at home, Bernays was attempting to persuade his wife to kick the habit.
When would find a pack of her Parliaments in their home, he would snap every one of them in half and throw them in the toilet. While promoting cigarettes as soothing and slimming, Bernays, it seems, was aware of some of the early studies linking smoking to cancer. Bernays used the same techniques on children. To convince kids that bathing could be fun, he sponsored soap sculpture competitions and floating contests. These were designed to prove that Ivory bars were more buoyant than competing products.
0コメント