As suggested my dissertation supervisor I watched the documentary ‘Century of the self’ in which episode one had a feature on Edward Bernays, nephew of established psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. In the documentary it I found that Edward Bernays became a 20th century influence, took Freuds ideas and used them to manipulate the masses, in which he showed corporations how they could make people want things they don’t need by linking mass produced goods to unconscious desires. He summarised this in his quote “If you could use propaganda for war, you could certainly use it for peace” manipulating the unconscious to make money.
In the documentary they reference a case study of Bernays in which he was employed by a tobaccos factory to improve their sales figures with a female demographic. As a result of the times it was deemed socially unacceptable for woman to be seen smoking in public. As a result of this Bernays persuaded a group of young debutants to smoke publicly at the annual Easter Day parade in New York City. He chose this venue as it was rife with reporters of which he informed reporters a group of suffragettes were protesting their inability to smoke in public. This made national news using the imagery of women smoking in public armed with Bernays memorable slogan “Torches of freedom” (referencing the cigarettes) evoked a sense of equality, emotions and memory encouraging anyone standing for these values to condone the behaviour. The results of this publicity stunt were astounding and resulted in changing the American perspectives of smoking in this single symbolic act. Making it socially acceptable and providing connotations that if a woman is seen smoking in public she is perceived as more powerful and independent.
This research highlights the importance of psychology within corporate branding and identity and reinforces the relevance of my research project that can be used to manipulate consumer attitudes towards a particular product of service through psychological exploitation.
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