Century of the Self - episode 4
*Edward Bernays*
- influence on 20th century nearly as great as his uncles
- first person to take Freud's ideas and use them to manipulate the masses
- make people want things they didn't need by linking mass produced goods to their unconscious desires
- satisfying people's inner selfish desires
- the all consuming self
- rulers of empire frightened of dangerous instinctual drives inside of all individuals
- unearthed powerful and sexual forces, feelings we repressed because they were too dangerous
- hidden and un-welcome impulses to the unconscious
- Austrian-Hungarian empire goes to war, Freud saw this as people behaving in the way that he'd discovered, evidence of findings
- Bernays' return to Europe, America's war with Germany and Austria
- Committee of public information, Bernay's employed to promote war aims in the press
- skilful in promoting idea both at home and abroad
- asked to accompany president (Woodrow Wilson) at Paris peace conference at end of war
- propaganda made Wilson a hero of the masses during war time
- Bernays began to wonder if the same type of mass persuasion could occur during peace time
- propaganda became a bad word because of use by Germans, found a way to change this
- Bernays joined Public relations council, determined to find a way to manage and alter a way the new crowds thought and felt
- received Freud's introduction to psychoanalysis
- make money by manipulating the unconscious
- a lot more going on in human decisions, information drives behaviour
- had to play to people's irrational emotions
- set out to experiment with the minds of the popular classes - persuade women to smoke - taboo against women smoking at that time
- tried to break this taboo
- was told that cigarettes were a symbol of the penis and male power, if Bernays could find a way to break this symbol of male power then he could find a way to make women smoke then they would have their own penises
- Torches of Freedom - suffragettes lighting cigarettes up dramatically - symbol of young females smoking in public, which means everyone supporting this debate has to support what they're doing, it's liberty, they're holding up the torch
- memory, irrational phrase
- story was around the world, sale of cigarettes to women began to rise, made it socially acceptable with a single symbolic act, made women more powerful and independent
- idea of smoking made women more free = completely irrelevant
- you will feel better about it if you have this or do this or purchase this
- think you need a piece of clothing, you will feel better with the piece of clothing than without it
- system of mass production flourishing after the war
- frightened of over production
- day when people had enough goods and would simply stop buying
- goods sold on basis of need
- necessities, promoted in functional terms for their durability, practical virtues, nothing more
- had to transform the way Americans thought about products
- "must shift America from a needs to a desire culture"
- "man's desires must overshadow his needs"
- Bernays at centre of changing this situation for corporations
- brings psychological theory to the table - appeal to the masses
- early 20s, banks funded chain of shops where mass goods would be sold
- linking products to famous film stars
- practice of product placement in movies
- dressed stars in films with clothes and jewellery that belonged to other firms he worked with
- cars became symbol of male sexuality
- organised fashion shows in department stores
- paid celebrities to express inner sense of self to others
- 1927, a change has come over our democracy, it is called consumerism and consumption
- promotion of novel idea that normal people should buy shares in stock market
- Bernays became famous as the man who understood the mind of the crowd
- press portrayed president of the time as a dull human being
- Bernays was to change the people's perception of him "president nearly laughed"
- Freud suffering bankruptcy, went to Bernay's for help
- kept precious dollars in a secret bank account
- got his books published, making them controversial
- Bernay's created Uncle Siggy, made him acceptable and then capitalised on this
- Freud became increasingly pessimistic about human beings and retreated to Vienna
- began to write about group behaviour, about how easily the aggressive behaviour of human beings could be triggered when in crowds, instincts were far more dangerous than he'd first thought
- man was the most ferocious animal that existed, Freud didn't like men
- publication of his books had an extraordinary effect, painted picture of forces lurking under society
- necessary to re-think democracy
- 'the bewildered herd'
- controlling unconscious feelings of the masses
- started looking towards psychological science to see how the popular mind worked
- 1920s, Bernays wrote books arguing he'd came up with Walter Lipmann's ideas
- engineering of consent
- consumerism had become central motor of American life
- the consuming self, made the economy work, and it was happy and docile, which managed the masses
- feel good medication that will immediately respond to pain
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- cental message - America reaches situation in crisis of Capitalism
- for Capitalism to exist it needs to grow e.g. profit on profit
- to do this you invent better ways to produce goods faster
- peaked in 20s in factory lines and mass production
- America reached situation where too many things were being produced that people don't even need
- Governments look at idea of false desire
- if America was going to grow as a Capitalist society, start to create false needs for things
- they could achieve this by communicating and attached goods to people's irrational desires
- cigarettes representation of the penis
- random object to base human desire on
- society creating false need for commodities, tapping in to inner most desires
- making them believe desires can be fulfilled by buying things
- creates a happy but brainwashed society
- passive, obedient, dormant society
- manipulation of people's real dreams, telling society what they should desire, making them believe they can achieve that through commodity and believing their wishes have been fulfilled
consumerism is a new way of organising society that is akin to social control, stopping revolution because you believe you have a happy life
*Type and Image*
- relationship to above context
- links between idea, image, brand, unconscious driving forces = incredibly powerful, persuasive tool
- Silk cut cigarettes - Saatchi&Saatchi
- new legislation introduced couldn't associate adverts with:
glamour
sports
celebrity status
success in business
masculinity or femininity
should not seek to actively persuade people to smoke
- SILK has feminine connotations that could be considered in a negative way
- they are low tar cigarettes and the danger is the brand gets associated with weak or effeminate image
- campaign based on two concepts from Freud, driving forces that control us, EROS (life, sex, be healthy, be dynamic, live productive life, be successful) and THANATOS (death, desire for violence, desire for morbid self destruction, negative drive), life instinct and death instinct
- two animalistic, ID impulses
- oral fixation, nipple substitute
- Oedipus complex, castration anxiety
- vagina dentata
- penis envy
- conscious level = piece of silk that is cut
- unconscious level = smooth, sexy, luxurious, bed sheets, cut can be interpreted as a vagina, there to remind you of sex
- presence of knife, cut, power of the penis being able to cut through
- idea of sexual violence
- linking brand to both male and female unconscious desires
- "sexy" but on a raw unconscious kind of level
- works on same psychological level as torches of freedom
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