I’ve been reading through Edward Bernays‘ 1928 book “Propaganda” and I’ve really been enjoying it. Now, the word “propaganda” has been given a bad reputation, but really it’s what PR, marketing, politics, and the world is all about. As old Edward says, “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.” Of course when you’re trying to promote a person,. product, company, or brand you’re working in propaganda.
Bernays would have been right at home in the digital era, working to influence the top bloggers. Even in 1928 he pointed out, “If you can influence the leaders, either with or without their conscious cooperation, you automatically influence the group which they sway.”
The business world may have forgotten it for a while, but what Bernays wrote so long ago still rings true, “Business realizes that its relationship to the public is not confined to the manufacture and sale of a given product, but includes at the same time the selling of itself and of all those things for which it stands in the public mind.” A company or brand has to sell itself to the public before it can hope to sell its product.
It seems that Bernays would have loved the social media revolution that the business world is taking part in. As he said, “Business must express itself and its entire corporate existence so that the public will understand and accept it.” What better way for a business to do that than to reach out in the most direct and social ways possible.
The father of modern PR is still kicking around and still completely relevant.
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