Public relations

Edward Bernays’ Daughter Anne Discusses Life With The ‘Father Of PR’

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Anne Bernays
Anne Bernays

Anne Bernays is the daughter of the so-called ‘Father of Public Relations’, Edward Bernays. She is, in her own right, an accomplished novelist and teacher, currently on the faculty of Lesley University’s MFA program in writing.

She joined Guy Evans for Episode 120 of the Smells Like Human Spirit Podcast to talk about life with the man she called ‘Eddie’; discussing his intense dedication to his work, his contradictory personality, and above all, his legacy. Enjoy!

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(Direct mp3 download: http://traffic.libsyn.com/smellslikepodcast/SLHS120.mp3)

Guy Evans is the Founder and Host of the Smells Like Human Spirit Podcast, which covers a wide variety of social and political issues. He also writes a regular column on former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds’ independent news website, BoilingFrogsPost.com.

Before getting into the world of independent media, he spent three years lecturing in the United Kingdom, playing international basketball, and running his own business. He has been featured in several academic publications for his student-focused lecturing and coaching approaches; notably a chapter in the internationally-distributed book ‘Athlete-Centered Coaching’ (Kidman, 2010). Mr. Evans lives with his wife (and three cats!) in Brooklyn, NY.

Source SmellsLikeHumanSpirit  July 1 2014

 

Deconstructing Edward Bernays’ ‘Propaganda’ (Finale – Part 13)

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“Propaganda will never die out. Intelligent men must realize that propaganda is the modern instrument by which they can fight for productive ends and help to bring order out of chaos.” – Edward L. Bernays

EdwardBernaysGuy Evans wraps up his series deconstructing the book ‘Propaganda’ authored by the ‘Father of Public Relations’ Edward Bernays. In the dramatic, perhaps prescient final paragraphs of the text, Bernays remained staunch in his belief that propaganda is necessary to quell the unconscious desires of the uninformed masses. In that sense, he echoed the sentiments of his famous uncle, Sigmund Freud, who suggested that human beings are in perpetual conflict due to the hidden inner forces that govern them.

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The media by which special pleaders transmit their messages to the public through propaganda include all the means by which people to-day transmit their ideas to one another. There is no means of human communication which may not also be a means of deliberate propaganda, because propaganda is simply the establishing of reciprocal understanding between an individual and a group.

The important point to the propagandist is that the relative value of the various instruments of propaganda, and their relation to the masses, are constantly changing. If he is to get full reach for his message he must take advantage of these shifts of value the instant they occur. Fifty years ago, the public meeting was a propaganda instrument par excellence. To-day it is difficult to get more than a handful of people to attend a public meeting unless extraordinary attractions are part of the program. The automobile takes them away from home, the radio keeps them in the home, the successive daily editions of the newspaper bring information to them in office or subway, and also they are sick of the ballyhoo of the rally.

Instead there are numerous other media of communication, some new, others old but so transformed that they have become virtually new. The newspaper, of course, remains always a primary medium for the transmission of opinions and ideas—in other words, for propaganda. Continue reading →

Deconstructing Edward Bernays’ ‘Propaganda’ (Part 11)

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“But in a broader sense the very activities of social service are propaganda activities. . . . . Social progress is simply the progressive education and enlightenment of the public mind in regard to its immediate and distant social problems.” ~E Bernays

EdwardBernaysPart 11 of this 13-part series analyzes  Edward Bernays’ Chapter 9 ‘Propaganda and Social Service’, which further exposes Bernays’ determination that the wealthy should direct the priorities of a particular society.

Bonus: This episode also features an interview with the former Boston Globe journalist Larry Tye, author of ‘The Father of Spin: Edward L. Bernays and the Birth of Public Relations’. Larry discusses meeting the man himself, what it was like to sift through his collection of things at the Library of Congress, and what he gleaned from talking to over 100 of his closest friends and relatives.

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Chapter 9 Transcript – “Propaganda In Social Service”

The public relations counsel is necessary to social work. And since social service, by its very nature, can continue only by means of the voluntary support of the wealthy, it is obliged to use propaganda continually. The leaders in social service were among the first consciously to utilize propaganda in its modern sense.

The great enemy of any attempt to change men’s habits is inertia. Civilization is limited by inertia.

Our attitude toward social relations, toward economics, toward national and international politics, continues past attitudes and strengthens them under the force of tradition. Comstock drops his mantle of proselytizing morality on the willing shoulders of a Sumner; Penrose drops his mantle on Butler; Carnegie his on Schwab, and so ad infinitum. Opposing this traditional acceptance of existing ideas is an active public opinion that has been directed consciously into movements against inertia. Public opinion was made or changed formerly by tribal chiefs, by kings, by religious leaders. To-day the privilege of attempting to sway public opinion is every one’s. It is one of the manifestations of democracy that any one may try to convince others and to assume leadership on behalf of his own thesis. Continue reading →

Deconstructing Edward Bernays’ ‘Propaganda’ (Part 10)

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“In the ethical sense, propaganda bears the same relation to education as to business or politics. It may be abused. It may be used to overadvertise an institution and to create in the public mind artificial values. There can be no absolute guarantee against its misuse.” E Bernays

EdwardBernays

Part 10 of Evans’ 13-part mini-series dissecting Edward Bernays’ seminal text ‘Propaganda” focuses on Chapter 8 (‘Propaganda for Education’), which alludes to themes of standardized testing, the dichotomy between theoretical and practical knowledge, and the general limitations of Educational systems.

Did Edward Bernays’ contempt for ‘ordinary’ people influence his views on Education? Find out in our latest episode!

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Chapter 8 Transcript – “Propaganda For Education”

Education is not securing its proper share of public interest. The public school system, materially and financially, is being adequately supported. There is marked eagerness for a college education, and a vague aspiration for culture, expressed in innumerable courses and lectures. The public is not cognizant of the real value of education, and does not realize that education as a social force is not receiving the kind of attention it has the right to expect in a democracy.

It is felt, for example, that education is entitled to more space in the newspapers; that well informed discussion of education hardly exists; that unless such an issue as the Gary School system is created, or outside of an occasional discussion, such as that aroused over Harvard’s decision to establish a school of business, education does not attract the active interest of the public.

There are a number of reasons for this condition. First of all, there is the fact that the educator has been trained to stimulate to thought the individual students in his classroom, but has not been trained as an educator at large of the public. Continue reading →

Deconstructing Edward Bernays’ ‘Propaganda’ (Part 9)

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“Possibly the effectiveness of women’s organizations in American politics to-day is due to two things: first, the training of a professional class of executive secretaries or legislative secretaries during the suffrage campaigns, where every device known to the propagandist had to be used to regiment a recalcitrant majority; secondly, the routing over into peacetime activities of the many prominent women who were in the suffrage campaigns and who also devoted themselves to the important drives and mass influence movements during the war.” ~E Bernays

EdwardBernaysThere is perhaps no truer application of the adage ‘actions speak louder than words’ than in examining the life and work of ‘The Father of Public Relations’, Edward Bernays. While on one hand, Bernays seemingly supported women’s liberation, his advertising techniques contributed heavily to making smoking a socially viable and desirable activity for women.

Episode 81 of the Smells Like Human Spirit Podcast focuses on Chapter 7 (‘Women’s Activities and Propaganda’). Past attitudes to women’s smoking, Bernays’ influence, and the long-term effects of his strategies are all discussed; and in the end, you may see that the more that things have changed, the more that they have stayed the same.

BONUS: This show contains an interview with Dr. Jerry Kroth, Professor Emeritus at Santa Clara University, on the topic of propaganda techniques. Enjoy!

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Chapter 7 Transcript – “Women’s Activities And Propaganda”

Women in contemporary America have achieved a legal equality with men. This does not mean that their activities are identical with those of men. Women in the mass still have special interests and activities in addition to their economic pursuits and vocational interests.

Women’s most obvious influence is exerted when they are organized and armed with the weapon of propaganda. So organized and armed they have made their influence felt on city councils, state legislatures, and national congresses, upon executives, upon political campaigns and upon public opinion generally, both local and national. Continue reading →