Propaganda

by Edward L. Bernays

in How We Advertised America (1920). The Germans having

In theory, everybody buys the best and cheapest commodities offered him on the market. In practice, if everyone went around pricing, and chemically

jammed. To avoid such confusion, society consents to have its choice narrowed to ideas and objects

Ideas and phrases can now be given an effectiveness greater than the effectiveness of any personality and stronger than any sectional interest.

This invisible, intertwining structure of groupings and associations is the mechanism by which democracy has organized its group mind

Whatever of social importance is done today, whether in politics, finance, manufacture, agriculture, charity, education, or other fields, must

Carnegie Foundation, so that the public would hear and believe. The statement by the president

Modern propaganda is a consistent, enduring effort to create or shape events to influence the relations of the public to an enterprise,

surf. When an Imperial Wizard, sensing what is perhaps hunger for an ideal, offers a picture of a nation all Nordic and nationalistic,

Charity, as well as business, and politics and literature, for that matter, have had to adopt propaganda,

cooperation of the key men in every group—persons whose mere word carried authority to hundreds or thousands or hundreds of thousands of followers.

Touch a nerve at a sensitive spot and you get an automatic response from certain specific members of the organism.

and the Paris couturiers to discover what they were doing, to encourage them to act on behalf of velvet,

legal form unless their half-expressed demand can be organized, made vocal, and concentrated upon the state legislature or upon the

Only through the active energy of the intelligent few can the public at large become aware

mentioned in “Who’s Who.” It

choosing, according to his taste and his personality, the kind of garment which he prefers. In reality, he may be obeying the

firm, which manufactures men’s suits, to send them instantly the designs of the suits chosen by the leaders of London fashion.

To reach and persuade the group leaders who dictate the public’s thoughts and actions

enterprises and ideas to the public, and in interpreting the public to promulgators of new enterprises and ideas, has come to be know by the name of “public relations counsel.”

Public opinion is the unacknowledged partner in all broad efforts.

an idea or to prepare the ground for a product that is basically unsound.

His next effort is to analyze his public. He studies the groups which must be reached, and the leaders through whom he may approach these groups. Social groups, economic groups, geographical groups,

producer be a legislature making laws or a manufacturer making a commercial product, understand what the public wants and to make the public understand the objectives of the producer.

best light, he nevertheless refuses a client whom he believes to dishonest, a product which he believes to be fraudulent,

If you can influence the leaders, either with or without their conscious cooperation, you automatically influence the group which they sway.

In making up its mind, its first impulse is usually to follow the example of a trusted leader.

Men are rarely aware of

best. He is almost certainly fooling himself. He bought it, perhaps, because a friend whose financial acumen he respects bought one last week;

worth or usefulness, but because he has unconsciously come to see in it a symbol of something else, the desire for which he is ashamed to admit to himself. A

Human desires are the steam which makes the social machine work. Only by understanding

The newer salesmanship, understanding the group structure of society and principles of mass

buys a car, because it is at the moment the group custom to buy cars.

The music room will be accepted because it has been made the thing. And the man or woman who has a music room,

One of the most effective methods is the utilization of the group formation of modern society in order to spread ideas.

of a given product, but includes at the same time the selling of itself and of all

also the structure, the personality, the prejudices, of a potentially universal public.

an amorphous mass which can be molded at will, or dictated to. Both business and the public

Modern business must study on what terms the partnership can be made amicable and mutually beneficial.

try to associate itself with the distinguished and the elegant, whether by an exhibition of old masters or through the social activities of the owner’s

“It matters not how much capital you may have, how fair the rates may be, how favorable the conditions of service, if you haven’t

behind you a sympathetic public opinion, you are bound to fail.”

propaganda is simply the establishing of reciprocal understanding between an individual and a group.

picture avails itself only of ideas and facts which are in vogue. As the newspaper seeks to purvey news, it seeks to purvey entertainment.

The public instinctively demands a personality to typify a conspicuous corporation or enterprise.

must respond to the basic appeals, because it will always need food, crave amusement, long for beauty,

realize that propaganda is the modern instrument by which they can fight for productive ends and help to bring order out of chaos.