What do you think?
Rate this book
The Edward Bernays Reader: From Propaganda to the Engineering of Consent
Nicknamed “the father of public relations,” Edward Bernays (1891–1995) was a pioneer in the fields of propaganda and PR. Combining theories on crowd psychology with the psychoanalytical ideas of his uncle, Sigmund Freud, Bernays elucidated how corporations and politicians could manipulate public opinion. His seminal 1928 book, Propaganda laid out how propaganda could be used to regiment the collective mind in a variety of areas, including government, politics, art, science and education, while his 1923 classic, Crystallizing Public Opinion , set down the principles that business and government have used to influence public attitudes over the past century. The Edward Bernays From Propaganda to the Engineering of Consent , is the first comprehensive volume of the writings of this influential and controversial figure. In addition to featuring extended excerpts from Crystallizing Public Opinion and Propaganda , this book also includes the full text of Bernays’ classic 1947 essay, “The Engineering of Consent,” on the application of scientific principles and practices to the task of getting people to support ideas and programs, as well as extensive selections of his other writings on subjects including education, war propaganda, and polling. Taken together, the material in this book offers the most complete look to date at the work of a man whose ideas are considered the single most important influence on modern propaganda, public relations, and spin.
296 pages, Paperback
Published September 14, 2021
30 people are currently reading
326 people want to read
About the author
Edward L. Bernays
58 books493 followersEdward L. Bernays was an Austrian-American pioneer in the field of public relations and propaganda, referred to in his obituary as "the father of public relations".
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 22, 2025
It is interesting to read Bernays continued emphasis on his belief about the importance of ethics in the PR profession, that advertising benefits both the business and the consumer, and his belief that PR is ultimately a means of holding together a free society. This optimism seems to reflect the times, in which business leaders and élites publicly professed and even acted on what was accepted as a multifaceted responsibility to the public, employees, and shareholders.
The last few essays were written around 1940 about techniques of propaganda for preserving a Democratic Republic in the US. These read as if they could have been written today in the context of people getting away with casually throwing up Nazi salutes at political events.
The last few essays were written around 1940 about techniques of propaganda for preserving a Democratic Republic in the US. These read as if they could have been written today in the context of people getting away with casually throwing up Nazi salutes at political events.
July 15, 2025
Strategy of timing, strategy of forbearance, approach, surprise, participation, association,dissociation,crossroads, personalization, fait accompli, bland withdrawal, apparent withdrawal, apparent runner-up, omission, reversal, mosaic. Organization that succeeds requires constant planning of detailed character relating to who, what, where, when, and how. It imposes obligation of a continuing check and evaluation of aims, methods, and results.
Nothing is more dangerous than the second class attention of a first class man. An organization can accomplish more under the first class attention of a second class man.
Money is probably one of the most vital and at the same time most limiting factors with which you must contend.
Money, man power, mind power, organization, planning , strategy , tactics
Attitudes cannot be changed overnight; it may be necessary to change your own objectives.
People of real insight and experience will have no part of a scheme which rests upon a foundation of mere gimmicks.
If opinion changes slowly, as a rule, that is a good thing, because if it changes swiftly, our world would be in a much more precarious condition than it actually is.
Tactic: the skillful employment of the tools and methods used to convey thought for the purpose of achieving in the minds of people a favorable reception for an idea as part of an overall program.
The effective speaker puts himself vicariously in the place of those he is addressing and plans the presentation of his words and ideas in a sequence that is natural, orderly, logical, and convincing.”
A speech that is read is never as effective as one without notes.”
All good announcers and commentators write out as much of their presentation before going on the air.”
A poor plan carried out with vigor and determination often can accomplish more than a good plan executed with indifference.”
For all conditions are more calculable, all obstacles more surmountable than those of human resistance. By reasoned calculation and preparation, those conditions can often be overcome almost to timetable predictability.
History is made not by the event but by man’s beliefs about what happened, what is happening, and what should happen. Herbert J. Miller uses of the past
Never be more general than your ignorance forces you to be.
It is more effective psychology to place people under obligation to you than it is to reimburse them.
The only possible content of knowledge is structure or relationships. Alfred Korzybski
There is no such thing as a leading question; there are only misleading answers.” Buck Weaver
Next to formulating the problem, analysis requires a higher degree of skill than any other research activity.
How to decide?! Research, budgets, guesswork, wisdom— and most important of all, the security that comes of knowing that you are being told the facts and not merely what your informants think you want to hear.
Forebearance grows out of strength and wisdom; it is seldom used by the young or insecure. The great question is whether withholding the action truly advances the larger purpose. If poor judgement is too often exercised in answering that question, the result can be a continuing state of irrational stasis nd this can handicap the cause more than would the impulsive act itself.”
The strategy of approach requires in its wisest form that every individual who can conceivably influence the decision be exposed to the arguments in its favor.”
To maintain their self-assurance, most people need to feel certain that whatever they believe about anything is true. People generally only believe what they want to believe. Even exposure to firsthand experience may not be convincing. Even when contrary truth is admitted a previous attitude towards a situation may not change.
People believe what they have been conditioned to believe. They react in terms of their culture pattern and personality. Telling a man a truth he rejects may only make him more set in his ways. It may make him more determined to disbelieve what you say.
One of the strongest emotional reactions is the tendency to attribute human characteristics to inanimate objects and incorporeal concepts…the power to create support for ideas and institutions by personalizing and humanizing them.
Effectiveness of themes depends on their power to arouse specific satisfaction drives.
Organization is a United group of people working for a common goal, under common leadership, and with the proper tools.”
Advances made by society begin with an intangible idea or at a more advanced stage, with a reasonable complex concept for the improvement of the quality of life.”
The high standards of American life can be attributed in no small part to our organized way of life and that includes the achievement of both organized management and organized labor.”
It takes better public relations to get a man to give a dollar than it does to convince him to spend a dollar.
Sound ideas and causes do not come into being by chance or flourish without tending. They must be planted, nurtured, and made to grow.”
Wishful thinking and simple hopefulness influence the actions of human beings far more than rational intelligence.”
People must be controlled by manipulating their instincts and emotions rather than by changing their reasonings. Richard v Worthington
Beware of the unrepresentative. It is the enemy of predictability.
An excess of means may be as harmful as a deficiency.
Is this how I figured in advance or is this how I justified it later? Man tends to credit to for thought victories which, conscience keeping reminding, may well belong in the category of afterthought.
Be suspicious of any research which does not state clearly the complete methodology.
You job is to have grasp, in advance of research, of how the findings will affect your choice of decisions.”
Your optimum research value will come from a definition of the problem in the most specific terms you are able to formulate. For each question there are systems of organized inquiry designed to increase the efficiency of problem solving. The more the question takes on form of a hypothesis, related to alternative courses of action, the more research will operate in the field of maximum utility.”
It is essential that you state the problem you have in terms of the decisions you have to make.”
Failure to understand the level on which a problem occurs….the most difficult part of organized research is an understanding of the depth and nature of the problem.
Research report becomes a hiding place for the man who has made a bad decision. It becomes both excuse and justification to his management. He was deceived.”
Research is a form of human behavior involving the collection and interpretation of data. Experience is the sum total of the data you have collected and the interpretation you have placed on it.”
The basic point of view is to blanket the opposition, to put it on the defensive, and create for yourself a position of affirmative leadership.
Deeds explained by words—not words alone—- must be the basis of any successful public relations activity. It will be The company’s long-term record of action that ultimately determines public support of dissatisfaction. Initial announcement cannot be delayed lest damaging rumors gain currency.”
Final decision must await correct evaluation of the mass of informed opinion and uninhibited theorizing which research has dredged up. The key to success at this stage is the exercise of common sense, supplanted by imagination.
It is necessary to consider what presumed personal or group ax each informant has to grind, and what part it may have played, either consciously or subconsciously, in forming his opinion . It is necessary to consider what opportunity the informant has had to consider all angles of the situation on which he comments—from what angle he and his group view the total picture.”
One of the greatest services of counsel will be to point out to the client the various sources of information which can be most helpful to him in arriving at a proper decision on his aims and objectives…such writings will often indicate what others have done on other occasions when faced with the same or related problems and what the results were….reports indicating what study of human mind reveals about probable reactions in this particular type of case.”
The gift of correct self-analysis is not very common, either in individuals or in corporate bodies.
Based on the magnitude of the problem, subdivide the objective into immediate, intermediate, and long-term phases.”
Time limitations play a great part in setting or limiting objectives for a public relations activity. The shorter the time element allowed the simpler your immediate objectives should be.”
Human tendency to jump at conclusions, make unfounded assumptions or to believe that things once true always remain so.”
Human nature seems to prefer to rely on instinct and improvisation, on hunch and insight, as needs arise and circumstances warrant. This reaction is a great hazard when it comes to actually sitting down and formulating just exactly what you want to any particular stage of the game.”
The PR counsel can only help make the possible probably, and the probably an actuality. The attainable objective must also be based on due consideration of the prejudices, preconceived attitudes, apathies, and ignorance of the publics whose cooperation is essential.”
For an objective to be attainable there must be an existing or a creatable community of interest between the client and the different publics whose support is essential.”
The trouble is that wish fulfillment and false identification of others interests as being similar to one’s own are human and widespread failings.”
There has been an unfounded assumption that everyone has the same general approach to the problem as everyone else on the board.”
Every successful PR campaign must be predicated on laying out in advance a whole series of objectives to be attained one after the other in orderly fashion. The cumulative effect of their total realization is the achievement of the ultimate goal overall.
Every event and chain of events reported in the press, of read with a discerning and analytical mind, provides valuable hints for the alert public relations practitioner.
Newsworthy events involving people usually do not happen by accident. They are planned deliberately to accomplish a purpose, to influence ideas and actions.”
Unless the PR effort can be made to coincide with fundamental motivations, the publics interest will be but fragmentary and transitory.
Each problem must be faced completely fresh. Experience will contribute to a correct approach. There must be no sterotypes of thinking when formulating strategy. Problems parallel one another but are never exact duplicates.
1) define your objectives 2) research your publics 3) modify your objectives to reach goals that research shows are attainable 4) decide your strategy 5)set up your Therese, symbols and appeals 6)blueprint an effective organization to carry on activity 7) chart your plan for both timing and tactics 8) carry out your tactics
Doctors and lawyers are often misjudged by laymen who are misled by false standards and values.
The client or employer who cannot appraise the expert is seriously handicapped.
It began to seem probable that a limited predictability of conduct might be developed through knowledge of motivations.
Technology has advanced at greater speed than society’s social understanding and sociological disciplines. The need for professionals who can deal with increasingly difficult problems of adjustment, interpretation, persuasion.
Public relations counsel is an expert in: analyzing PR maladjustments, locating probable causes of such maladjustments in the social behavior of the client and in the sentiments and opinions of publics, and advising client on suitable corrective measures.
Public relations is the attempt, by information, persuasion, and adjustment, to engineer public support for an activity, cause, movement, or institution.
Nothing is more dangerous than the second class attention of a first class man. An organization can accomplish more under the first class attention of a second class man.
Money is probably one of the most vital and at the same time most limiting factors with which you must contend.
Money, man power, mind power, organization, planning , strategy , tactics
Attitudes cannot be changed overnight; it may be necessary to change your own objectives.
People of real insight and experience will have no part of a scheme which rests upon a foundation of mere gimmicks.
If opinion changes slowly, as a rule, that is a good thing, because if it changes swiftly, our world would be in a much more precarious condition than it actually is.
Tactic: the skillful employment of the tools and methods used to convey thought for the purpose of achieving in the minds of people a favorable reception for an idea as part of an overall program.
The effective speaker puts himself vicariously in the place of those he is addressing and plans the presentation of his words and ideas in a sequence that is natural, orderly, logical, and convincing.”
A speech that is read is never as effective as one without notes.”
All good announcers and commentators write out as much of their presentation before going on the air.”
A poor plan carried out with vigor and determination often can accomplish more than a good plan executed with indifference.”
For all conditions are more calculable, all obstacles more surmountable than those of human resistance. By reasoned calculation and preparation, those conditions can often be overcome almost to timetable predictability.
History is made not by the event but by man’s beliefs about what happened, what is happening, and what should happen. Herbert J. Miller uses of the past
Never be more general than your ignorance forces you to be.
It is more effective psychology to place people under obligation to you than it is to reimburse them.
The only possible content of knowledge is structure or relationships. Alfred Korzybski
There is no such thing as a leading question; there are only misleading answers.” Buck Weaver
Next to formulating the problem, analysis requires a higher degree of skill than any other research activity.
How to decide?! Research, budgets, guesswork, wisdom— and most important of all, the security that comes of knowing that you are being told the facts and not merely what your informants think you want to hear.
Forebearance grows out of strength and wisdom; it is seldom used by the young or insecure. The great question is whether withholding the action truly advances the larger purpose. If poor judgement is too often exercised in answering that question, the result can be a continuing state of irrational stasis nd this can handicap the cause more than would the impulsive act itself.”
The strategy of approach requires in its wisest form that every individual who can conceivably influence the decision be exposed to the arguments in its favor.”
To maintain their self-assurance, most people need to feel certain that whatever they believe about anything is true. People generally only believe what they want to believe. Even exposure to firsthand experience may not be convincing. Even when contrary truth is admitted a previous attitude towards a situation may not change.
People believe what they have been conditioned to believe. They react in terms of their culture pattern and personality. Telling a man a truth he rejects may only make him more set in his ways. It may make him more determined to disbelieve what you say.
One of the strongest emotional reactions is the tendency to attribute human characteristics to inanimate objects and incorporeal concepts…the power to create support for ideas and institutions by personalizing and humanizing them.
Effectiveness of themes depends on their power to arouse specific satisfaction drives.
Organization is a United group of people working for a common goal, under common leadership, and with the proper tools.”
Advances made by society begin with an intangible idea or at a more advanced stage, with a reasonable complex concept for the improvement of the quality of life.”
The high standards of American life can be attributed in no small part to our organized way of life and that includes the achievement of both organized management and organized labor.”
It takes better public relations to get a man to give a dollar than it does to convince him to spend a dollar.
Sound ideas and causes do not come into being by chance or flourish without tending. They must be planted, nurtured, and made to grow.”
Wishful thinking and simple hopefulness influence the actions of human beings far more than rational intelligence.”
People must be controlled by manipulating their instincts and emotions rather than by changing their reasonings. Richard v Worthington
Beware of the unrepresentative. It is the enemy of predictability.
An excess of means may be as harmful as a deficiency.
Is this how I figured in advance or is this how I justified it later? Man tends to credit to for thought victories which, conscience keeping reminding, may well belong in the category of afterthought.
Be suspicious of any research which does not state clearly the complete methodology.
You job is to have grasp, in advance of research, of how the findings will affect your choice of decisions.”
Your optimum research value will come from a definition of the problem in the most specific terms you are able to formulate. For each question there are systems of organized inquiry designed to increase the efficiency of problem solving. The more the question takes on form of a hypothesis, related to alternative courses of action, the more research will operate in the field of maximum utility.”
It is essential that you state the problem you have in terms of the decisions you have to make.”
Failure to understand the level on which a problem occurs….the most difficult part of organized research is an understanding of the depth and nature of the problem.
Research report becomes a hiding place for the man who has made a bad decision. It becomes both excuse and justification to his management. He was deceived.”
Research is a form of human behavior involving the collection and interpretation of data. Experience is the sum total of the data you have collected and the interpretation you have placed on it.”
The basic point of view is to blanket the opposition, to put it on the defensive, and create for yourself a position of affirmative leadership.
Deeds explained by words—not words alone—- must be the basis of any successful public relations activity. It will be The company’s long-term record of action that ultimately determines public support of dissatisfaction. Initial announcement cannot be delayed lest damaging rumors gain currency.”
Final decision must await correct evaluation of the mass of informed opinion and uninhibited theorizing which research has dredged up. The key to success at this stage is the exercise of common sense, supplanted by imagination.
It is necessary to consider what presumed personal or group ax each informant has to grind, and what part it may have played, either consciously or subconsciously, in forming his opinion . It is necessary to consider what opportunity the informant has had to consider all angles of the situation on which he comments—from what angle he and his group view the total picture.”
One of the greatest services of counsel will be to point out to the client the various sources of information which can be most helpful to him in arriving at a proper decision on his aims and objectives…such writings will often indicate what others have done on other occasions when faced with the same or related problems and what the results were….reports indicating what study of human mind reveals about probable reactions in this particular type of case.”
The gift of correct self-analysis is not very common, either in individuals or in corporate bodies.
Based on the magnitude of the problem, subdivide the objective into immediate, intermediate, and long-term phases.”
Time limitations play a great part in setting or limiting objectives for a public relations activity. The shorter the time element allowed the simpler your immediate objectives should be.”
Human tendency to jump at conclusions, make unfounded assumptions or to believe that things once true always remain so.”
Human nature seems to prefer to rely on instinct and improvisation, on hunch and insight, as needs arise and circumstances warrant. This reaction is a great hazard when it comes to actually sitting down and formulating just exactly what you want to any particular stage of the game.”
The PR counsel can only help make the possible probably, and the probably an actuality. The attainable objective must also be based on due consideration of the prejudices, preconceived attitudes, apathies, and ignorance of the publics whose cooperation is essential.”
For an objective to be attainable there must be an existing or a creatable community of interest between the client and the different publics whose support is essential.”
The trouble is that wish fulfillment and false identification of others interests as being similar to one’s own are human and widespread failings.”
There has been an unfounded assumption that everyone has the same general approach to the problem as everyone else on the board.”
Every successful PR campaign must be predicated on laying out in advance a whole series of objectives to be attained one after the other in orderly fashion. The cumulative effect of their total realization is the achievement of the ultimate goal overall.
Every event and chain of events reported in the press, of read with a discerning and analytical mind, provides valuable hints for the alert public relations practitioner.
Newsworthy events involving people usually do not happen by accident. They are planned deliberately to accomplish a purpose, to influence ideas and actions.”
Unless the PR effort can be made to coincide with fundamental motivations, the publics interest will be but fragmentary and transitory.
Each problem must be faced completely fresh. Experience will contribute to a correct approach. There must be no sterotypes of thinking when formulating strategy. Problems parallel one another but are never exact duplicates.
1) define your objectives 2) research your publics 3) modify your objectives to reach goals that research shows are attainable 4) decide your strategy 5)set up your Therese, symbols and appeals 6)blueprint an effective organization to carry on activity 7) chart your plan for both timing and tactics 8) carry out your tactics
Doctors and lawyers are often misjudged by laymen who are misled by false standards and values.
The client or employer who cannot appraise the expert is seriously handicapped.
It began to seem probable that a limited predictability of conduct might be developed through knowledge of motivations.
Technology has advanced at greater speed than society’s social understanding and sociological disciplines. The need for professionals who can deal with increasingly difficult problems of adjustment, interpretation, persuasion.
Public relations counsel is an expert in: analyzing PR maladjustments, locating probable causes of such maladjustments in the social behavior of the client and in the sentiments and opinions of publics, and advising client on suitable corrective measures.
Public relations is the attempt, by information, persuasion, and adjustment, to engineer public support for an activity, cause, movement, or institution.
May 14, 2025
A collection of essays by Edward L. Bernays written between 1923 and 1979, this collection suffers from the two main drawbacks of amassing such a volume of work. The first, that Bernays invariable repeats himself as every essay/article was addressed to different audiences/sources, meaning he has to repeatedly introduce and define key ideas; The second, the fact that everything written before ww2 just feels horribly dated by today's standards. You can almost feel how tired Bernays is in his written work from 1979, an 88 year old man basically offering a cliff-notes version of all his ideas, a far cry from the youthful idealism and energy you can feel in his work from the 1920s, when the idea of Public Relations was still a brand new concept, or the nationalistic optimism for the future of the United States and "Democracy!" Bernays wrote with in his ww2 era work. Both of these attitudes feel naïve at best to modern readers who are now surrounded by propaganda and advertising material almost 24/7, both for the things they need and don't, and whose faith in the government (no matter where you fall on the political spectrum) has seemed to hit an all time low. Bernays repeatedly states that public relations is like a science applied to an art (or vice versa) and so he struggles to give you any hard advice on how to properly even do public relations work. Despite reading the book the whole thing still feels like arcane knowledge to me, one that you have to "feel" or at least go to a fancy school to learn about. It would have been a tremendous help if he had provided specific case examples to highlight his points, but in lieu of that, the whole book feels vague with just a constant iteration of basic principles and broad ideas. I personally would only recommend this book to those working in the field of public relations or marketing who simply want a historical reference to the beginnings of the industry.
Some quotes I liked:
Primarily, however, the engineer of consent must create news. News is not an inanimate thing. It is the overt act that makes news, and news in turn shapes the attitudes and actions of people. A good criterion as to whether something is or is not news is whether the event juts out of the pattern of routine. The developing of events and circumstances that are not routine is one of the basic functions of the engineer of consent. Events so planned can be projected over the communication systems to infinitely more people than those actually participating, and such events vividly dramatize ideas for those who do not witness the events. The imaginatively managed event can compete successfully with other events for attention. Newsworthy events, involving people, usually do not happen by accident. They are planned deliberately to accomplish a purpose, to influence our ideas and actions. (Pg. 50)
Here, then, is a first element in molding public opinion. How can the propagandist reach these groups who make up the large public? He can reach them through their leaders, for the individual looks for leadership to the leaders of the groups to which he belongs. He may be dominated by the leaders of many groups, for these group cleavages of society are numerous and diversified. They play a vital part in molding public opinion, and they offer the propagandist a means of reaching vast numbers of individuals; for with so many confusing and conflicting ideas competing for the individual's attention, he is forced to look to others for authority and leadership. No man, in today's complicated world, can base his judgments and acts entirely on his own examination and weighing of the evidence. A credence in leaders is a sound short-cut (when leaders are sound).
Thus the group leader becomes a key figure in the molding of public opinion, and his acceptance of a given idea carries with it the acceptance of many of his followers-through many channels. If group leaders accept our ideas, the groups they dominate will respond. The importance of these key leaders as a medium for reaching large groups of the population is a factor of primary importance, and must never be neglected. Nor must we forget that not only do they convey ideas to the public, but they also interpret and articulate to the propagandist, for his guidance, the particular groups they represent. In their entirety, they represent the whole public. (Pg. 57)
Universal literacy was supposed to educate the common man to control his environment. Once he could read and write he would have a mind fit to rule. So ran the democratic doctrine. But instead of a mind, universal literacy has given him rubber stamps, rubber stamps inked with advertising slogans, with editorials, with published scientific data, with the trivialities of the tabloids and the platitudes of history, but quite innocent of original thought. Each man's rubber stamps are the duplicates of millions of others, so that when those millions are exposed to the same stimuli, all received identical imprints. It may seem an exaggeration to say that the American public gets most of its ideas in this wholesale fashion. The mechanism by which ideas are disseminated on a large scale is propaganda, in the broad sense of an organized effort to spread a particular belief or doctrine.
I am aware that the word propaganda carries to many minds an unpleasant connotation. Yet whether, in any instance, propaganda is good or bad depends upon the merit of the cause urged, and the correctness of the information published. (Pg. 85)
As civilization, morality, and ethics developed in the course of history, men drew up rules of the game which tend to make us behave more like human beings. But modern competitive society is still so relatively new that these rules are not as well defined as they ought to be, and we do not adhere to them as much as we might. The pecuniary values of competitive society make us punish adultery, which affects the happiness of three people, far more harshly than adulteration, which may affect the health of millions. (Pg. 108)
But for words by themselves make little impact unless they reflect acceptable action or are associated with concepts that give them strength. Social scientists have found that people accept only what they a priori are willing to accept. Unless words reflect factual evidence, authority, reason, tradition, or carry strong emotion they lose their impact on individuals who a priori do not believe what they convey.
It must also be remembered that in our society the meaning of words is as fragile as a soap bubble or lace. If we want to gain acceptance for our words, they must reflect acceptable concepts and be reinforced in their meaning by associating them with the elements of acceptance just referred to. (Pg. 136)
A hairnet manufacturer, Venda, asked us to increase the wearing of hairnets, then hampered by the short hair fashion introduced by dancer Irene Castle. We explored the uses of hairnets as a safety measure for women working with machinery, and as a result of public visibility of the idea, several states passed laws making it obligatory for women to wear hairnets under certain working conditions. The segmental approach was developed by stressing the sanitary aspect of hairnets for cooks and waitresses. (Pg. 198)
A book published in the late twenties, Propaganda Technique in the World War, by Harold Lasswell, attempted to isolate the factors of marketing....:
1. Fasten the war guilt on the enemy; 2. Claim unity and victory, in the names of history and deity; 3. State war aims. In the last war, the Germans failed to do this successfully. The Allies made successful counter-propaganda out of it. Security, peace, a better social order, international laws, are given as war aims; 4. Strengthen the belief of the people that the enemy is responsible for the war, with examples of the enemy's depravity; 5. Make the public believe that unfavorable news is really enemy lies. This will prevent disunity and defeatism; 6. Follow this with horror stories. The story of the Turk who sits before a tubful of his captives' eyes was first told during the Crusades. Horror stories, says the author, should be made to sound authoritative. (Pg. 216)
Heorge C. Bruntz's book, Allied Propaganda and the Collpase of the German Empire in 1918, may help us in dealing with the question. he deals with the foreign angle, but his classification of psychological techniques is applicable to the domestic situation:
1. Propaganda of enlightenment: Get true facts to the people and army of the enemy country, negating the false information they are fed by their own country.
2. Propaganda of despair: Attempt to break down the morale of the enemy by showing that death, disaster and defeat face him.
3.Propaganda of hope: Present to the enemy civilians and army a picture of a promised land, if they will only lay down their arms . President Wilson gave the Fourteen Points as America's war aims.
4. Particularist propaganda: This is aimed at factions in the opposing country and army, seeks to divide them into antagonistic groups-Catholic against Protestant, the people of Alsace-Lorraine against the Prussians in the last war.
5. Revolutionary propaganda: This is aimed at breaking down the government of the enemy from within. The propaganda by the Allies in the last war aimed at stirring up the German people against the Hohenzollerns. (Pg. 217)
Note: It's interesting to see in the modern conflicts going on today, especially in Eastern Europe, you can see both sides of the conflict attempting to use all these strategies against each other on various social media platforms.
Some quotes I liked:
Primarily, however, the engineer of consent must create news. News is not an inanimate thing. It is the overt act that makes news, and news in turn shapes the attitudes and actions of people. A good criterion as to whether something is or is not news is whether the event juts out of the pattern of routine. The developing of events and circumstances that are not routine is one of the basic functions of the engineer of consent. Events so planned can be projected over the communication systems to infinitely more people than those actually participating, and such events vividly dramatize ideas for those who do not witness the events. The imaginatively managed event can compete successfully with other events for attention. Newsworthy events, involving people, usually do not happen by accident. They are planned deliberately to accomplish a purpose, to influence our ideas and actions. (Pg. 50)
Here, then, is a first element in molding public opinion. How can the propagandist reach these groups who make up the large public? He can reach them through their leaders, for the individual looks for leadership to the leaders of the groups to which he belongs. He may be dominated by the leaders of many groups, for these group cleavages of society are numerous and diversified. They play a vital part in molding public opinion, and they offer the propagandist a means of reaching vast numbers of individuals; for with so many confusing and conflicting ideas competing for the individual's attention, he is forced to look to others for authority and leadership. No man, in today's complicated world, can base his judgments and acts entirely on his own examination and weighing of the evidence. A credence in leaders is a sound short-cut (when leaders are sound).
Thus the group leader becomes a key figure in the molding of public opinion, and his acceptance of a given idea carries with it the acceptance of many of his followers-through many channels. If group leaders accept our ideas, the groups they dominate will respond. The importance of these key leaders as a medium for reaching large groups of the population is a factor of primary importance, and must never be neglected. Nor must we forget that not only do they convey ideas to the public, but they also interpret and articulate to the propagandist, for his guidance, the particular groups they represent. In their entirety, they represent the whole public. (Pg. 57)
Universal literacy was supposed to educate the common man to control his environment. Once he could read and write he would have a mind fit to rule. So ran the democratic doctrine. But instead of a mind, universal literacy has given him rubber stamps, rubber stamps inked with advertising slogans, with editorials, with published scientific data, with the trivialities of the tabloids and the platitudes of history, but quite innocent of original thought. Each man's rubber stamps are the duplicates of millions of others, so that when those millions are exposed to the same stimuli, all received identical imprints. It may seem an exaggeration to say that the American public gets most of its ideas in this wholesale fashion. The mechanism by which ideas are disseminated on a large scale is propaganda, in the broad sense of an organized effort to spread a particular belief or doctrine.
I am aware that the word propaganda carries to many minds an unpleasant connotation. Yet whether, in any instance, propaganda is good or bad depends upon the merit of the cause urged, and the correctness of the information published. (Pg. 85)
As civilization, morality, and ethics developed in the course of history, men drew up rules of the game which tend to make us behave more like human beings. But modern competitive society is still so relatively new that these rules are not as well defined as they ought to be, and we do not adhere to them as much as we might. The pecuniary values of competitive society make us punish adultery, which affects the happiness of three people, far more harshly than adulteration, which may affect the health of millions. (Pg. 108)
But for words by themselves make little impact unless they reflect acceptable action or are associated with concepts that give them strength. Social scientists have found that people accept only what they a priori are willing to accept. Unless words reflect factual evidence, authority, reason, tradition, or carry strong emotion they lose their impact on individuals who a priori do not believe what they convey.
It must also be remembered that in our society the meaning of words is as fragile as a soap bubble or lace. If we want to gain acceptance for our words, they must reflect acceptable concepts and be reinforced in their meaning by associating them with the elements of acceptance just referred to. (Pg. 136)
A hairnet manufacturer, Venda, asked us to increase the wearing of hairnets, then hampered by the short hair fashion introduced by dancer Irene Castle. We explored the uses of hairnets as a safety measure for women working with machinery, and as a result of public visibility of the idea, several states passed laws making it obligatory for women to wear hairnets under certain working conditions. The segmental approach was developed by stressing the sanitary aspect of hairnets for cooks and waitresses. (Pg. 198)
A book published in the late twenties, Propaganda Technique in the World War, by Harold Lasswell, attempted to isolate the factors of marketing....:
1. Fasten the war guilt on the enemy; 2. Claim unity and victory, in the names of history and deity; 3. State war aims. In the last war, the Germans failed to do this successfully. The Allies made successful counter-propaganda out of it. Security, peace, a better social order, international laws, are given as war aims; 4. Strengthen the belief of the people that the enemy is responsible for the war, with examples of the enemy's depravity; 5. Make the public believe that unfavorable news is really enemy lies. This will prevent disunity and defeatism; 6. Follow this with horror stories. The story of the Turk who sits before a tubful of his captives' eyes was first told during the Crusades. Horror stories, says the author, should be made to sound authoritative. (Pg. 216)
Heorge C. Bruntz's book, Allied Propaganda and the Collpase of the German Empire in 1918, may help us in dealing with the question. he deals with the foreign angle, but his classification of psychological techniques is applicable to the domestic situation:
1. Propaganda of enlightenment: Get true facts to the people and army of the enemy country, negating the false information they are fed by their own country.
2. Propaganda of despair: Attempt to break down the morale of the enemy by showing that death, disaster and defeat face him.
3.Propaganda of hope: Present to the enemy civilians and army a picture of a promised land, if they will only lay down their arms . President Wilson gave the Fourteen Points as America's war aims.
4. Particularist propaganda: This is aimed at factions in the opposing country and army, seeks to divide them into antagonistic groups-Catholic against Protestant, the people of Alsace-Lorraine against the Prussians in the last war.
5. Revolutionary propaganda: This is aimed at breaking down the government of the enemy from within. The propaganda by the Allies in the last war aimed at stirring up the German people against the Hohenzollerns. (Pg. 217)
Note: It's interesting to see in the modern conflicts going on today, especially in Eastern Europe, you can see both sides of the conflict attempting to use all these strategies against each other on various social media platforms.
April 26, 2024
Good marketing book tbh. Some takeaways:
Associate enterprise goals with consumer goals/motives/desires (rebranding 101). Eg: torches of freedom. Bacon and egg.
Particularist propaganda: propaganda aimed at factions in order to divide them into antagonistic groups. (Android vs ios )?
Channels, and speed of message delivery increased while costs went down, making the consumer get easily molded.
Identify where/who/what shapes the consumer opinion (network of communication). Unified targeting is better than single node targeting.
Target group leaders, individuals usually seek their authority to shape their opinions.
Understand the consumer:
Whats their motives, desires, needs, and fears?
What shapes their opinion?
Associate enterprise goals with consumer goals/motives/desires (rebranding 101). Eg: torches of freedom. Bacon and egg.
Particularist propaganda: propaganda aimed at factions in order to divide them into antagonistic groups. (Android vs ios )?
Channels, and speed of message delivery increased while costs went down, making the consumer get easily molded.
Identify where/who/what shapes the consumer opinion (network of communication). Unified targeting is better than single node targeting.
Target group leaders, individuals usually seek their authority to shape their opinions.
Understand the consumer:
Whats their motives, desires, needs, and fears?
What shapes their opinion?
February 7, 2025
...some good thoughts peppered in between a heap of filler writing
February 24, 2025
More relevant than ever!
January 10, 2024
i found it interesting up until the halfway point, when it dives into a dense series of excerpts from a previous book by the author. the detailed overview of propaganda and how/why it works in the first half was good enough for me, don't think i'll be finishing the whole book
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews