Name: How One Man Manipulated All of America
Uploaded: 2020-10-20T19:25:35.000Z
Duration: 12 min 18 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

This is the story of how one man manipulated an entire country.

Adverbs of manner

Like a true puppeteer, he inconspicuously tugged on the strings of society, guiding

This is the story of Edward Bernays: the man who manipulated America.

America had undergone massive changes in the past several decades.

Both the first and second Industrial Revolution had taken place, public education had largely

been established, and over 50% of American citizens were living in cities [1].

The city had moved past its embryonic state and was now fully alive.

A larger and growing middle class emerged.

As a result of urbanization, more people were living in less space than ever before.

Industrialization gave us the ability to produce more goods than ever before.

These products were desirable by a growing middle class which had more disposable income

In some ways it gives to us and, in other ways, it takes from us.

It put more fish in our sea but it made it so much harder to stand out among the ocean

The consummation of these factors helped give birth to a new culture of consumerism.

Due to industrialization, supply was capable of being much higher than demand.

A business owner that could increase the demand of his products was like a pirate who had

This insight, in large part, paved the way for modern advertising.

Many owners were willing to go to great lengths to manipulate the public into buying their

This brings us to the man of the hour and the focal point of this essay: Edward Bernays.

Bernays was the nephew of the iconic psychologist Sigmund Freud and, arguably, the father of

At the time, advertisements were quite straightforward; they were a strict statement of the factual

Largely inspired by the work of his uncle, Bernays believed that advertisements would

be much more effective if advertisers understood group psychology.

If they could understand the emotions, longings, unconscious desires, and questions of the

consumer, they could market their product as a fulfilling answer.

This may seem obvious today but it was a revolutionary form of advertising at the time that Bernays

For example, a car company should market a car as a symbol of social status, wealth,

and power as opposed to stating facts about how well it runs.

The latter describes how cars actually used to be advertised!

A salesman would have highlighted the factual benefits of a car: how far it could drive

without refuelling, how it handles on the road, and whether it was automatic or manual.

Bernays honed his skill of manipulating the public during WW1.

He was hired to help rally national support for the war efforts.

“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.”

Essentially, propagandists use media, such as magazines, newspapers, radio, the internet,

and video, to manipulate the masses into accepting, or conforming to, a certain idea.

Because of its use in the World Wars, propaganda has taken on a very negative connotation.

It manipulates people into adopting a particular belief or doctrine with the intent of removing

Many people see it as inherently wrong to use.

On the other-hand, Bernays thought that propaganda was wrong only when it was spreading lies

What makes this idea so troubling is that Bernays believes that he and other propagandists

know what is beneficial for the common good.

This is a common trait among dictators and a theme that appears over and over again in

He truly believed that most people were stupid sheep that needed an elite and intelligent

Before we dive deeper into one of Bernays' most notable campaigns, I think it's important

to understand his overarching methodology for influencing the public.

*Symbolism.* As stated earlier, Bernays was a big believer in symbolism.

An idea or a product can become a movement when it represents something greater than

He believed that indirect methods of selling that appealed to a consumers unconscious thoughts,

emotions, and desires were much more potent than directly selling to a consumer using

*Influencers.* Another one of Bernays' powerful tactics was using authoritative or influential

Bernays believed that influencing the people at the top of the pyramid would cause his

One person - a celebrity, for example - can have influence over thousands of people.

Bernays knew, if he could convince a single figure to adopt his ideology, that figure

would effectively spread the message to their followers.

This is known as influencer marketing and is utilized often by modern advertisers.

*Group Norms.* By altering group norms, Bernays could impose a social pressure on consumers

that would force them to buy something to “fit in”.

*Mental Space.* Bernays understood that a consumers mental space was the holy grail

Securing a safe spot in as many minds as possible was the prime objective.

For that reason, he believed in advertising EVERYWHERE.

The total amount of mental space available was limited and so competition for it was

For example, let's assume that I sell apples.

Subtitles ListPlay Video

How One Man Manipulated All of America

essentially

mental

debate

campaign