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How to Control What People Do | Propaganda - EDWARD BERNAYS | Animated Book Summary - YouTube
Channel: Eudaimonia
[15]
Edward Bernays persuaded women to smoke.
[18]
He convinced the public that bacon and eggs
were the true all-American breakfast.
[23]
He also facilitated the successful overthrow
of a democratically elected Guatemalan president.
[28]
How did one man achieve these remarkable accomplishments?
[33]
The methods used to accomplish these astonishing
events are explained in his book, ‘Propaganda’.
[39]
What is propaganda?
[42]
Propaganda nowadays is now seen as a synonym
for lies.
[46]
It implies half-truths, selective history,
bias, misleading information and other tricks.
[52]
However, it can be used in a positive manner.
[55]
For example: a campaign to improve public
health through vaccination.
[60]
When used in such a constructive way, it can
be a progressive force, capable of improving
[65]
and benefiting every life and every home.
[72]
Specific propaganda should be seen as good
or bad depending on the merit of the cause
[76]
urged and the correctness of the information
published.
[80]
Modern propaganda is a consistent and continuing
effort to create or shape events to influence
[86]
public relations on an enterprise, idea or
group.
[91]
Edward Bernays worked for the Woodrow Wilson
administration in the First World War, using
[96]
a propaganda model promoting America’s war
efforts as ‘bringing democracy to Europe’.
[101]
After swaying the public across the world
with this slogan he set to work on employing
[106]
propaganda in peacetime.
[108]
Due to negative implications surrounding the
word propaganda because of its use by the
[114]
Germans in the war, he promoted the term ‘Public
Relations’.
[122]
A public relations expert is concerned with
bringing an idea to the awareness of the public,
[130]
using modern media communications and group
formations of society.
[133]
They act as an advisor to their client.
[138]
Edward Bernays had an impressive list of these
clients, ranging from media companies such
[142]
as Time Inc., CBS and NBC through to individuals
such as the President of the United States.
[150]
He was not just a propagandist.
[151]
He was concerned with courses of action, policies,
systems and opinions, and the securing of
[157]
public support for them.
[159]
His responsibilities even included discovering
new markets.
[162]
The most famous new market Bernays was asked
to uncover was that of women smoking cigarettes
[168]
in the late 1920s.
[173]
Up until then women smoking in public was
seen as a social taboo.
[176]
Bernays set about removing this taboo to potentially
double tobacco companies possible clientele.
[183]
First, he contacted a psychoanalyst to understand
the societal perceptions that dissuaded women
[189]
from smoking.
[191]
He found that for feminists, cigarettes were
like ‘torches of freedom’ that symbolised
[196]
their nonconformity and freedom from male
oppression.
[200]
He used this information to formulate a strategy
and got a group of stylish women to march
[207]
in an Easter Day parade.
[210]
Prior to the parade, he had told the press
that a group of women's rights marchers would
[216]
light ‘torches of freedom’.
[219]
On his cue, the women lit up their cigarettes
in front of the eager photographers.
[224]
The result was press coverage in several major
newspapers including the New York Times which
[229]
helped to break the taboo against women smoking
in public.
[233]
The study of mass psychology has brought to
light the fact that a group can have certain
[238]
mental characteristics distinct from that
of an individual.
[246]
Learning how the masses are influenced by
various factors allows us to effect change
[250]
in public opinion with a fair amount of accuracy.
[254]
However, propaganda will never be an exact
science, in the same way psychology or sociology
[260]
isn’t, because they deal with humans.
[262]
If you can influence leaders, you automatically
influence the groups they rule or have authority
[269]
over.
[270]
The group mind has impulses, emotions and
habits rather than thoughts as such.
[276]
It makes up its mind by impulsively following
the example of a trusted leader or authority
[281]
figure.
[282]
If this is not available, the herd ‘thinks’
by clichés or images that stand for a group
[287]
of experiences or ideas.
[292]
An old propagandist would treat the human
mind as an individual machine and rely on
[296]
certain stimulus often repeated creating a
habit.
[300]
Similarly they would reiterate an idea to
create conviction with individuals.
[305]
For example, to advertise bacon and eggs,
adverts would contain phrases along the lines
[310]
of ‘eat more eggs’, ‘bacon is good for
you’ and ‘bacon and eggs are cheap and
[317]
healthy’.
[318]
A new propagandist such as Bernays who understands
group psychology would first look at who influences
[323]
eating habits.
[325]
The answer is doctors and physicians.
[326]
They would then suggest to these doctors and
physicians to publically state that eating
[331]
bacon and eggs is good for you.
[332]
The propagandist knows that a large number
of people will follow the advice of their
[337]
doctor due to the psychological relationship
between a person and their doctor.
[342]
A doctor signifies health which in turn signifies
long life.
[348]
Bernays used these exact methods of leader
influence to convince the public that bacon
[352]
and eggs was the true all-American breakfast.
[355]
Bernays sold more bacon, not by telling Americans
that bacon is tasty, but by asking doctors
[360]
the question: ‘Is it more healthy to eat
a hearty breakfast or a skimpy breakfast?’.
[364]
His advertisements then said, ‘Nine out
of ten doctors recommend a hearty breakfast
[370]
like this one’ with a photo of bacon and
eggs.
[376]
An old advertiser would try to persuade an
individual to buy an item immediately, for
[380]
example: ‘Buy this piano – NOW’.
[384]
Using reiteration and emphasis directed upon
the individual, the advertiser tries to break
[388]
down sales resistance.
[390]
A new advertiser would instead of directly
penetrating sales resistance, try to remove
[395]
it by creating circumstances that will swing
emotional currents that will build purchaser
[400]
demand.
[401]
For example, a new advertiser when selling
a piano would try to develop acceptance of
[406]
the idea of a music room in the house, perhaps
by arranging an exhibition of music rooms
[410]
by well-known designers, inviting key people
of influence with regards to buying habits,
[415]
i.e. famous musicians.
[417]
The music room will be accepted and people
with a music room will naturally think of
[421]
buying a piano, believing it comes as their
own idea.
[426]
Instead of saying to the purchaser ‘please
buy a piano’, they have caused the purchaser
[429]
to say ‘please sell me a piano’.
[434]
All these methods and techniques were used
for Bernays’ most extreme propaganda campaign:
[439]
the overthrow of the Guatemalan government.
[441]
The government had introduced labour laws
that allowed workers to strike if their demand
[445]
for higher wages were not met.
[447]
The United Fruit Company had been the largest
landowner and employer in Guatemala for several
[452]
years and these laws would affect their profits.
[455]
Edward Bernays was hired by the United Fruit
Company to persuade Americans that the then
[460]
Guatemalan president Jacobo Arbenz was a communist,
when in reality he was a liberal capitalist.
[468]
Bernays ran an intensive campaign of misinformation
to portray the company as the victim of the
[472]
government for several years including taking
American journalists to Guatemala and arranging
[477]
for them to interview only those who opposed
Arbenz.
[480]
Bernays’ involvement led to US President
Eisenhower to intervene and ultimately Arbenz
[486]
was overthrown in a US-sponsored coup designed
to make the world safe for large U.S. corporations.
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