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Edward Louis James Bernays was born in Vienna, Austria, on November 22, 1891. He was the son of Ely Bernays and Anna Freud Bernays. His maternal uncle was the famed psychologist Sigmund Freud. When the boy was a year old the family emigrated to New York City, where his father became a successful grain merchant.
After education in DeWitt Clinton High School, Edward enrolled in the Agricultural College of Cornell University. In 1912 he graduated with a degree in agriculture.
Bernays chose journalism as his first career. He became editor of the Medical Review of Reviews in New York City. In 1913 he learned that the actor Richard Bennet planned to produce "Damaged Goods," a play warning of the dangers of venereal disease. But the controversial nature of the subject was making it difficult for Bennet to raise funds for the project. Bernays volunteered to help. He set up a "Sociological Fund Committee" to finance the production and rally public support. Bernays enlisted so many of the city's notables to the cause that no one-not even the censors-could question the total respectability of the play. "Damaged Goods" opened without incident and was hailed as a valuable contribution to public awareness. Bernays had found a new career.
From 1913 to 1917 Bernays worked as a publicist for theatrical productions and promoted the appearances of such artists as Enrico Caruso and the Diaghilev ballet company. When the United States entered World War I Bernays offered his services to the government's Committee on Public Information. The committee, headed by ex-newspaperman George Creel, was designed to generate public support at home and abroad for America's war aims.
In 1919, after service with the American Peace Commission in Paris, Bernays returned to New York to apply the methods of the Committee on Public Information to the business world. His partner in the new venture was journalist Doris E. Fleischmann. For some years entertainers and corporations had employed "press agents" to secure favorable notice in the newspapers. As the world's first "counsel on public relations," Bernays had loftier ambitions. He promised to actively shape public opinion in the interests of his clients. Hair Nets, Soap, and Cigarettes Bernays' campaigns for Venida hair nets and Procter & Gamble during the 1920s and Lucky Strike cigarettes during the 1930s provide good examples of his methods.
Wide Range of Clients Bernays earned his greatest fame through his promotion, for the electrical industry, of the 50th anniversary of the light bulb in 1929.
In 1939 he was the publicity director for the New York World's Fair. During World War II his services were called upon by the Army, the Navy, and the Commerce and Treasury departments. After the war he was actively involved in the government's foreign information program. Bernays strove throughout his long career to raise the status and standards of his profession. His lectures on public relations in 1923 at New York University were the first on that subject at a major university. He published widely in the field, including such classic works as Crystallizing Public Opinion (1923), Public Relations (1952), and The Engineering of Consent (1955).
Bernays retired in the early 19606 but continued as an consultant and advocate of public relations into his 100th year. He also, quite ironically in light of his work for Lucky Strike cigarettes in the 1930s, worked as an anti-smoking crusader.
He died on March 9, 1995 in Cambridge, Massachusetts at the age of 103.
Bernays was named one of the 100 most influential Americans of the 20th century by Life magazine. He was the subject of a full length biography by Larry Tye called The Father of Spin (1999) and later an award-winning 2002 documentary for the BBC by Adam Curtis called The Century of the Self.
His best-known campaigns include a 1929 effort to promote female smoking by branding cigarettes as feminist "Torches of Freedom" and his work for the United Fruit Company connected with the overthrow of the Guatemalan government in 1954. He worked for dozens of major American corporations including Procter & Gamble and General Electric, and for government agencies, politicians, and non-profit organizations.
Quotations:
"If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, it is now possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without them knowing it."
"If we understand the mechanisms and motives of the group mind, it is now possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing it In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind."
"The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organised habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country."
"We are dominated by the relatively small number of persons who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind."
"The only difference between 'propaganda' and 'education, ' really, is in the point of view. The advocacy of what we believe in is education. The advocacy of what we don't believe in is propaganda."
"The three main elements of public relations are practically as old as society: informing people, persuading people, or integrating people with people. Of course, the means and methods of accomplishing these ends have changed as society has changed."
Quotes from others about the person
Neal Gabler wrote in his Bernays retrospective in New York Times Magazine, "he not only taught generations of persuaders how to sway public opinion... but he was, in the cultural historian Ann Douglas's words, the man 'who orchestrated the commercialization of a culture.'"
Edward married Doris E. Fleischman in 1922. Fleischman and Bernays had two daughters, Doris and Anne.
