Edward Bernays: How One Man Helped Shape the Art of Mass Persuasion

Have you ever wondered why people purchase certain products, support particular political candidates, or suddenly become interested in something that never mattered to them before?

Sometimes the answer has less to do with the product itself than with the way it is presented.

A product can be sold as a symbol of freedom. A politician can be presented as a champion of ordinary people. A company can associate its name with environmental protection or social progress.

These strategies have a history, and one of the people who helped develop them was Edward Bernays.

Bernays did not invent the idea of propaganda. Governments, religious institutions, political leaders, and merchants had been influencing public opinion for centuries. However, he helped develop modern public relations into a systematic profession that used psychology, publicity, and organized communication to shape public attitudes.

His story offers a useful way to understand the relationship between information, persuasion, business, and power.

Who Was Edward Bernays?

Edward Louis Bernays was born in Vienna in 1891 and grew up in the United States. He was related to Sigmund Freud, the influential psychoanalyst whose work explored the unconscious dimensions of human behavior.

Bernays became interested in how people's emotions, desires, and social relationships influenced their decisions.

He initially worked in publicity and promotion. During World War I, he joined the Committee on Public Information, a U.S. government agency that coordinated communications designed to build support for the American war effort.

That experience helped shape his career.

Bernays recognized that techniques used to influence public opinion during wartime could also be applied during peacetime.

Businesses could use them to sell products. Political organizations could use them to gain support. Social movements could use them to bring attention to their causes.

After the war, he established himself as a public relations consultant.

In 1923, he published Crystallizing Public Opinion. Five years later, he published Propaganda, a book that became an important text in the development of modern public relations.

Selling More Than a Product

Traditional advertising often emphasizes what a product does.

A shoe protects the feet. A car provides transportation. A particular food supplies nourishment.

Bernays understood that people frequently attach meanings to the things they purchase.

A car might represent independence. Clothing might communicate social status. A cigarette might be presented as a symbol of sophistication or personal freedom.

The product becomes associated with an idea.

This approach changes the nature of advertising. Rather than simply explaining the practical benefits of a product, a campaign attempts to influence how people feel about it.

The strategy remains recognizable today.

Advertisements frequently connect products with happiness, achievement, attractiveness, family relationships, or social acceptance.

The underlying message is often that purchasing a product will help people become the person they want to be.

When Cigarettes Became Symbols of Freedom

One of Bernays's most famous campaigns took place in 1929.

At the time, women smoking in public faced social disapproval in many settings. The American Tobacco Company wanted to expand the market for cigarettes among women.

Bernays helped organize a publicity event during New York City's Easter Parade. Women were encouraged to smoke cigarettes publicly, with the act presented as a statement of independence.

The campaign associated cigarettes with women's liberation and the right to challenge social restrictions.

The cigarettes were promoted as symbols of freedom rather than simply products made from tobacco.

The strategy was effective as publicity because it connected a commercial product with a significant social question: women's place in public life.

But the campaign also reveals an ethical problem.

Women's equality was a genuine social issue. Cigarette manufacturers, however, had a commercial interest in expanding sales.

By connecting smoking with independence, the campaign used the language of liberation to promote a harmful product.

The lesson is not that women's freedom was unimportant. It is that a legitimate social cause can be used to advance an entirely different agenda.

The Power of an Apparently Independent Voice

Bernays understood that people do not always trust direct advertising.

When a company praises its own product, consumers know that the company wants to make a sale.

But what happens when a newspaper article, respected professional, celebrity, or community organization appears to recommend the same product?

The message may carry more credibility.

Public relations professionals can seek publicity through events, expert endorsements, news coverage, and relationships with influential people.

When these activities are not transparent, audiences may not recognize the commercial or political interests behind the message.

This creates an important distinction between persuasion and manipulation.

Persuasion presents information and makes a case that people can evaluate. Manipulation attempts to influence people while obscuring important facts about the message, its sponsor, or its purpose.

Public relations can serve either function.

The ethical question is whether people have enough information to understand who is trying to influence them and why.

The Idea of an Invisible Government

Bernays explored the influence of public opinion in his 1928 book Propaganda.

He argued that modern societies are shaped by people and organizations that influence public attitudes, even when the public does not know who they are.

He described an informal system of influence involving business interests, political organizations, media, and people who specialize in shaping public opinion.

His argument was that large societies cannot function without some form of organized communication and leadership.

Yet his writing also raises a troubling question: If other people can shape the information we receive, how independent are our decisions?

Consider how public attention is directed.

A news organization decides which stories receive prominent coverage. An advertising agency decides which emotions to associate with a product. A political campaign chooses which issues to emphasize. A social media platform determines which posts appear in a person's feed.

Each decision influences what people see and how they interpret the world.

No single person necessarily controls all these processes. Nevertheless, the combined effect can be powerful.

Understanding this system helps us recognize that public opinion does not develop in isolation. It is influenced by the information people receive, the people they trust, and the social environments in which they live.

The Breakfast Table and the Power of Professional Authority

Bernays also helped popularize bacon and eggs as an American breakfast.

In a campaign for the Beech-Nut Packing Company, he sought to promote a more substantial breakfast. He consulted a physician about whether a larger breakfast might be beneficial and arranged for doctors to be surveyed about the subject.

The resulting publicity helped promote the idea of a hearty breakfast, including bacon and eggs.

This example illustrates another public relations technique: associating a product with professional authority.

People naturally pay attention to medical professionals when making decisions about health. A message that appears to have professional support can carry more weight than an ordinary advertisement.

That makes transparency especially important.

Readers should be able to distinguish independent scientific evidence from publicity arranged to promote a company's commercial interests.

A recommendation does not become false simply because a company publicizes it. But knowing who organized the message and who benefits from it helps people evaluate the claim.

From Advertising to Politics

The same principles used to promote commercial products can be applied to political communication.

A political campaign might associate a candidate with patriotism, economic security, family values, or national renewal.

Another candidate might be portrayed as dangerous, incompetent, or disconnected from ordinary people.

Campaigns select images, stories, slogans, and public appearances to encourage particular interpretations.

These methods are not automatically dishonest. Political communication is necessary in a democracy, and candidates must explain their positions to voters.

The danger arises when emotional appeals replace evidence, misleading claims go unchallenged, or information is deliberately arranged to prevent people from making informed judgments.

The same question applies to corporations and governments: Are people receiving information that helps them understand an issue, or are they being guided toward a conclusion that primarily benefits someone else?

Public Relations and the Question of Power

Bernays's career demonstrates that communication is not simply about transmitting information.

It is also about deciding which information receives attention, how a subject is framed, and which emotions become attached to it.

These choices can affect markets, elections, social movements, and public understanding.

However, it would be inaccurate to attribute all modern advertising or political persuasion to one man. Bernays worked within a much longer history of propaganda, publicity, psychology, and mass communication.

Other thinkers and practitioners contributed to these fields, and the development of radio, television, newspapers, and digital platforms created new opportunities to influence large audiences.

Bernays was important because he helped systematize these methods and explain them as a professional practice.

His influence also reminds us that techniques of persuasion can be used for different purposes. They can bring attention to neglected issues, encourage civic participation, and help organizations communicate. They can also conceal conflicts of interest and exploit public trust.

The methods themselves do not settle the ethical question. Their purposes and consequences matter.

What Can We Learn From Edward Bernays Today?

We live in an information-rich society. Advertisements, news stories, political messages, online videos, and social media posts compete for our attention every day.

Some messages are designed to inform us. Others are designed to sell something, change our behavior, or gain our support.

Sometimes these purposes overlap.

We can become more thoughtful consumers of information by asking a few simple questions:

Who created this message?

Knowing the source can help us understand its perspective and possible interests.

Who benefits if I believe it?

A message may serve the interests of a business, political organization, public figure, or social cause.

What evidence supports the claim?

Emotional language and attractive images are not substitutes for reliable evidence.

What information might be missing?

A message can create a misleading impression without making a statement that is directly false.

Am I being encouraged to think, or simply to react?

Strong emotional responses can sometimes prevent us from examining a claim carefully.

These questions do not require us to distrust everything we see. They encourage us to make better-informed decisions.

Information Is Power

Edward Bernays helped make the study and practice of public persuasion a central part of modern business and political communication.

His career shows how psychology, publicity, and social symbolism can influence what people buy, believe, and support.

But his legacy is also a reminder that the ability to influence public opinion carries responsibility.

A society in which people can access information is not necessarily a society in which people understand how that information is being used.

The ability to read, question, investigate, and evaluate information is essential to making informed choices.

Ultimately, the most important lesson from Bernays may be that we should pay attention not only to the messages we receive but also to how those messages are constructed, who distributes them, and whose interests they serve.

Understanding the mechanics of persuasion gives people a better opportunity to think for themselves.