Edward Bernays

Edward Bernays (1891–1995) was an American public relations pioneer who applied ideas from psychology and propaganda to influence public opinion and consumer behavior.

Engineering of Consent: A theory and practice of shaping public agreement through organized communication and social influence. Bernays used this phrase for the deliberate management of public opinion.
Creel Committee: The U.S. government’s Committee on Public Information, which promoted support for World War I. Bernays worked on wartime publicity there before applying related methods commercially.
Doris Fleischman: An American writer, editor, and public relations practitioner who worked closely with Edward Bernays. Fleischman was his professional collaborator and helped build their public relations firm.
Crystallizing Public Opinion: Bernays’s 1923 book arguing that public relations practitioners shape public opinion on behalf of clients. It set out his account of the profession and its social power.
Torches of Freedom: A 1929 publicity event in which women smoked cigarettes during New York’s Easter Parade. Bernays presented the event as a demonstration of women’s independence while promoting tobacco.
Propaganda: Communication designed to influence beliefs or behavior, often in service of a political cause. Bernays adapted techniques associated with wartime propaganda for peacetime public relations.
Anne Bernays: An American novelist and the daughter of Edward Bernays and Doris Fleischman. Her memoir and family history provide a personal perspective on Bernays’s life.
Propaganda (book): Bernays’s 1928 book on the organized shaping of public opinion in democratic societies. The book made his case for managed persuasion explicit and remains his best-known work.
Publicity stunt: A staged event or action designed to attract media coverage and public attention. Bernays turned planned events into news that carried clients’ messages.
Sigmund Freud: A neurologist who founded psychoanalysis and theorized that unconscious motives shape human behavior. Freud was Bernays’s uncle, and Bernays drew on psychoanalytic ideas in his work.

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