#theFridayFeature — Edward Bernays
“People want to go where they wanted to be led.”
- Edward Bernays
Once upon a time, long long ago, existed brands, existed consumers and existed corporates. All believed in rationality as being a guidance to minds and decision making. Advertisers made commercials mounted over facts. Products were produced based on needs. And sold using logic. Incase you happened to come across a commercial from those times, you’d want to save yourself from the unending torture. So, it happened. The saviour arrived with a thought — a thought that we lead our daily lives on. A thought that makes you want to buy, a thought that helps build brand. Edward Bernays made a suggestion that humans make decisions not logically, but magically…
We all know Sigmund Freud, don’t we? But there’s his less known nephew, the pioneer of what we today call Public Relations — relations of the public with a brand and vise versa. Think about it, why do you admire a certain celebrity? Maybe for his work, but that happens to be a tiny part of your obsession. You idolize the person for one simple reason — he succeeds in tapping one of your many emotional unfulfilled desires. That desire could either be success, freedom, fortune, irreverence or God knows what.
Edward Bernays, based on the works of his uncle, brought this timeless theory to life which even today, not only those involved in the business use, but every common man does in his routine mundane life.
“Men (people) are rarely aware of the real reasons which motivate their actions.”
- Edward Bernays
Those days, smoking in the West was considered a taboo for women. Considering a large part of India, it is so even today. Women are highly judged by their habits. For men, they are nothing more than a health hazard. A prominent cigarette brand approached Edward on the issue and Edward did come up with a solution.
He positioned cigarettes as a symbol of freedom for women. Edward called his campaign ‘Torches Of Freedom’. The interesting analogy gained mass appeal resulting in a highly hikened cigarette sale. Through the brand, he asked women to free themselves from the clutches of the orthodox society.
Now who wouldn’t want to be associated with a liberal token?
“We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of.”
- Edward Bernays
The infamous Nazi General then adopted Edward’s thoughts articulating them with his own genius. Taking references from Sigmund Freud, he realized that these concepts can also be applied to a mass. Leading the crowd towards an unfulfilled emotion can create an undying obsession for the leader along with infinite hatred towards one who opposes him.
Weird how Chaplin, Hitler and now Bernays look the same.
There is no doubt in the fact that the West is brilliant in marketing, positioning and packaging their ideas. But in the end, the question arises of where these ideas emerge from? The root lies in the study of various world philosophies — all from China to India. It is rather shameful that we as Indians are not that well-versed with our own historical advances. That makes it easy for the West to derive from the land and present to the people in a way that makes it look like their own.
A friend of mine recently pointed out — the in-air positions of Superman and Hanuman are the same. Get the point?
“If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, it is now possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without them knowing it.”
- Edward Bernays
Thank You Edward for being an immense inspiration to me and millions of others. May your soul rest in peace.
“Sab Ganda Hai Par Dhanda Hai Ye
(All’s bad but all’s business).”
- Company, 2002
Well, that’s all for today.
Keep reading, keep sharing and never stop believing!
“When I came back to the United States, I decided that if you could use propaganda for war, you could certainly use it for peace. And ‘propaganda’ got to be a bad word because of the Germans using it, so what I did was to try and find some other words so we found the words ‘public relations’.”
- Edward Bernays
