Corruption and Design
As of the 20th century design has gone hand in hand with the notion of corruption. Designers would create works that were paid for by corporate fat cats or even politicians and use them to district or lie to the public. Edward Bernays once said:
“The great enemy of any attempt to change men’s habits is inertia. Civilization is limited by inertia.”
This was a big issue for designers at the time. People refused to change their minds. But times changed with the massive boom of corporate branding. Companies would advertise in a way that was to influence and manipulate the public.
“It did what all ads are supposed to do: create an anxiety relievable by purchase.”
― David Foster Wallace
Like in Bernay’s Lucky Strike advert they woud lie, here seen using womens self image, to sell cigarettes, a product that not only didn’t do waht they said but was at the time actually known to be relatively unhealthy.
But the public were none the wiser. They had been tricked and fallen victim to this almost propaganda level of advertisement that they would not even fully understand, they just thought that what they were told was the truth, while the while the politicians, business men and even the advert designers themselves profited off of this confusion and manipulation.
“Marketing is what you do when your product is no good.”
― Edwin Herbert Land
