What we can learn from Edward Bernays
Was the father of PR really that bad? I believe we can still learn a thing or two from him.
Not long ago I saw the first episode of the documentary “The century of the Self”. The documentary explores the various ways in which governments and corporations have used Freud’s theories. The first episode is about Edward Bernays and his use of psychological techniques in public relations.
I must confess that I didn’t know who Edward Bernays was. I knew of Freud, of course. Who doesn’t! But I had no clue he had a nephew that was able to influence the masses leveraging his theories.
So what did Edward Bernays do to bring a whole country, the US, to do what he wanted? He understood the power of desire.
At the time of World War I, Bernays was a journalist that ended up helping the government promote the idea that US efforts in the war were intended to bring democracy to Europe. The propaganda successfully convinced the masses that indeed the US participation was a good thing. So the fact that it was possible to influence masses through propaganda wasn’t new, but Bernays started asking himself whether it could be possible to do the same in time of peace.
He started drawing on the insights of his uncle Sigmund and forged a new theory called “the engineering of consent”, which enabled to “control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing about it.” The theory thought that instead of appealing to the rational part of the mind, it was necessary to tap in the unconscious of the masses. And considering that propaganda had acquired a bad connotation because of the war, he decided to create a new term for it and called it “public relations.”
In his book “The Engineering of Consent”, Bernays mentioned straight forward that, when trying to reach consent, “themes must appeal to the motives of the public. Motivation is the activation of both conscious and subconscious pressure created by the force of desires.”
His whole theory was based on the concept of desire instead of need. Masses have unconscious desires that can be tapped into.
His theory was extremely successful, but also profoundly criticised for the use of symbolism and subconscious to “manipulate” the masses. But is that really so? Yes and no.
To understand what I mean let’s look at concrete examples. Probably the most successful application by Bernays of his theory was the campaign he created and directed for the American Tobacco Company. He was asked to convince women to smoke in public, so that more tabacco could be sold. At that time women were not allowed to smoke in public, only men could. To change that Bernays tapped into the desire of freedom and equality. Here is my point. Bernays didn’t create that desire. The desire was already there. Women were already moving towards emancipation. They wanted to be like men, they wanted to be considered equal. And the fact that women were not allowed to smoke in public while men could was clearly against that desire.
Conclusion: Sooner or later women would have started smoking in public anyway.
But there is another example of application of Bernays’ theory which shows its power and not in a good way.
The darkest use of his theory (as far as I know) was by the Germans in their propaganda to build the “Fuhrer Cult” and start the destructive campaign against the Jews in Germany. The Nazis also tapped into a desire — Germany was starving at that point because of the sanctions applied at the end of WWI — , but they associated it with terrible actions and symbols which we all know. And because the German desire of going back to prosperity and power was strong and compelling, people ended up supporting what was the biggest disaster in history.
I believe, Bernay’s theory was revolutionary for that time and extremely powerful. But the power didn’t lie in the desire which must be already there and I don’t believe it can be created. Rather it lies in the choice of what to associate to that desire.
Said that, we can all agree that being manipulated isn’t fun neither fair. So what can we learn from the Bernays’ theory?
Desire is stronger than we can possibly imagine
An unconscious desire can drive us to do things we rationally wouldn’t do. I guess this doesn’t come across completely new. Today there is a lot of talking around what we can achieve when we really want something. This is my motto in everything I do:
There is nothing we can’t achieve if we really want it!
And Bernays is scientifically proving that.
In his theory though there is one more component: The unconscious.
Unconscious desires are stronger than conscious ones because they are not controlled by our rational mind, but more details on this are not in the scope of this article (even though it is extremely interesting).
Staying present is one of the best tools we’ve got.
Being present gives us a moment. A split of a second between an emotion, a thought and the action that follows.
That short moment allows us to question the truthfulness of the emotion or thought and whether the suggested (by our mind or by someone else) action is really appropriate or not.
We should protect our own identity
We are unique and when we give in to mass or group behaviours, we are losing some of that and we are not unique anymore. We should protect our identity as best as we can. Also understanding our own emotions, desires and fears, which are part of our identity, makes us stronger. When we understand ourselves, we are less vulnerable and also less manipulable. We should always ask ourselves questions about how we feel or about what we are asked to do, either via an advertisement or in our daily life by the people that surround us. Is it fair? Is it really what we want? It’s important to understand if we would really do that or if that action is a reflection of someone else’s mind.
