Is everything a Propaganda? How the government, media, businesses, and Hollywood use propaganda for their benefit.

Edward Bernays, known as the pioneer of public relations, utilized a concept of propaganda that affects the consumers emotion instead of the prior marketing concept of simply stating the function of the product. The thesis of this research post is to understand to what degree did Bernays propaganda methods effect the future of marketing for companies and how was the US Government utilized to benefit companies and the countries self-interest. Did this benefit the consumer or big business? How are these methods used as a potential detriment to society?

Who is Edward Bernays and how did he become so influential

Edward Bernays was born November 22, 1891, to a Jewish family in Vienna, Austria. His uncle is Sigmund Freud, an Austrian neurologist and founder of psychoanalysis. Bernays utilized teachings and writings from his uncle, specifically psychoanalysis to his benefit later in life [1]. Bernays is best known for using emotions to sway a consumer to purchase a product or to sway a reader or observer to think or believe in a certain way. Prior to Bernays marketing products consisted of explaining the function of a product and was very plain and unappealing in the process. Bernays learned from the teachings of his uncle Freud that the masses are irrational, and he perfected how to manage and control them by making them want something they didn’t need through their unconscious desires [2].

            To understand how Bernays was able to capture this ability compared to others, one must understand his upbringing and heritage. There are theories that it was the role Jews played in Europe starting in the thirteenth century with the use of the Shtadlan, a lobbyist for Jews that worked on behalf of the Jewish peoples of the ghettos that eventually became the court Jew in sixteenth century Germany [3].  Christians utilized Jews for money lending, which led to banking and the use of tax collection. The court Jew was used by European royalty for their commercial and financial services. This could be a deadly career that could’ve led up to the court Jew losing their property or their life [4]. Therefore, developing a use of persuasion would’ve been beneficial for the court Jew, which was learned over time.

            Another theory is a Jewish revivalist movement in the eighteenth century known as Hassidus, that translated teachings of the Kabbalah which was used to better one’s life. Stories would be told of the Torah that contained deep mysteries and were meant to reach peace of mind and spiritual fulfillment by searching for ones meaning in life [5]. This is said to be a precursor to psychoanalysis. The mussar movement in the nineteenth century taught perfection of character, seeking meaningful acts, kindness, and a focus on meditation and prayer. Freud was very aware of this movement and was in communication with rabbis involved with the original movement [6].

            Bernays is related to chief rabbi of Hamburg Germany Jacob Bernays, which in the nineteenth century influenced followers and future disciples through his neo-orthodoxy. The future disciples went on to become journalists, poets and the creation of Viennese economics [7]. The Bernays family migrated to Vienna from Hamburg due to Vienna being tolerant of Jews and allowing Jews to attend University. While in Vienna, the Freud and Bernays families were influenced by Max Adler, an Austrian politician and philosopher. Adler himself was influenced by Karl Marx, which developed his philosophies with an emphasis on society in conjunction with the concept of one’s mind [8]. It was this philosophy that Freud took from Adler, that he influenced a young Edward Bernays to watch behaviors and how people are influenced.

Bernays methods and examples

After graduating from Cornell University, Bernays worked with his father in New York City for the produce exchange as a grain exporter. He then went onto become an editor for Medical Review of Reviews and Dietetic and Hygienic Gazette, he used his position to push a play called Damaged Goods upon the public. The play was about prostitution and the effects of venereal diseases, the intent was to educate the public on sex education. Bernays learned during this time that to get traction a movement needs powerful figures backing it [9]. Therefore, the Rockefellers, Roosevelts and Vanderbilts supported the movement for the play, and it was more effective than Bernays attempting alone to bring it to the public.

            Bernays then worked with performers as an agent by aiding in the promotion of productions. This is where he learned that pushing a narrative to the public increases the chances of gaining interest in a production and selling tickets. Once the US entered WW1, Bernays took a position with the Committee on Public Information, to build support for the war. During this time Bernays understood the importance of influence and utilizing what is now called psychological warfare.

            Following the war, Bernays worked in public relations with a focus on aiding companies to increase sales using psychology and utilizing methods that would lean a consumer to purchase compared to previous marketing methods. For example, the Beech-Nut packing company wanted to push toward selling more bacon. Bernays knew the old method of telling a consumer “Eat more bacon. Eat bacon because it is cheap, because it is good, because it gives you reserve energy” wouldn’t be as effective as having an influential figure pushing the sale of bacon.  Bernays knew using psychology that people listen to those who influence their eating habits and their health, therefore a physician would be the right person to promote bacon[10]. Bernays knew that to be good at public relations, one must be knowledgeable at the art of persuasion; know how to use the facts with one’s own reason and persuasive power. But Bernays also knew that living in a society with multiple groups, the best way to certain people is to cut out the middleman and go straight to the leader they accept [11]. The public relations personnel should also be knowledgeable of emotion, and the art of persuasion and judgment. All these factors come into play with knowing the focus group, the product, the objective, and the means of pushing said product.

            The most well-known public relations campaign from Bernays would be known as torches of freedom. The American Tobacco Company hired Bernays to increase sales to women, at this time in the nineteen twenties it was taboo for women to smoke in public and mostly men smoked at this time. Bernays using the emotion of the time, such as women’s suffrage and pushing women’s rights, he wanted to utilize a marketing campaign geared toward something that effected women emotionally. The setting would be the 1929 Easter parade in New York City, and Bernays would use a group of attractive women to walk around the parade smoking in public. Bernays had pictures taken of them as a form of empowerment and the pictures were put in newspapers and utilized in ads with the slogan Torches of Freedom [12]. The campaign was used as a form of weight loss for women, empowerment, and a movement to progress. The campaign benefited the company, which showed an increase in earnings from twelve million in 1926 to over forty million in the 1930’s.

How German Joseph Goebbels used Bernays methods to push Nazi propaganda

Joseph Goebbels who had already obtained a PhD from the University of Heidelberg long before he read Propaganda by Edward Bernays. Goebbels had many tribulations in the nineteen twenties in post war Germany that led to much rife and at one point he contemplated suicide due to being unable to get employment after obtaining his doctorate [13]. Once he became part of the Nazi party and read Bernays book he knew what he wanted and needed to do. Everything is in the eye of the beholder and hindsight is twenty-twenty, but I don’t believe at that time he thought his actions would’ve led to where they did. It’s possible he understood the impossibility that Germany faced following the war with the reparation payments, inflation, and the metaphorical German knee being bent by the Treaty of Versailles, that he wanted to make a difference and hopefully provide Germany with a better future [14].   

            “Propaganda must not investigate the truth objectively-but it must present that aspect of the truth which is favorable to its own side” famous words stated by Goebbels when he was the Reich minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda [15]. The Nazi party began to suppress Communist and Democratic newspapers, while Goebbels had meetings with journalists, he told them how to answer questions and provided them with articles to publish pushing a positive Nazi narrative. Goebbels used Hitler’s speeches and broadcasted them as propaganda and creating a mythos type of character out of Hitler. To get the propaganda out, Goebbels had German manufacturers create a cheap radio known as volksempfanger 301 for the average people of Germany. This would allow mass propaganda to easily get disseminated to fifty-six million Germans, while only allowing Nazi propaganda [16].

The use of propaganda through the US military and the CIA

In 1918 the US Army started propaganda sections to influence the behavior of foreign actors. It wasn’t until 1941 that it changed its name from propaganda to psychological operations but continued with the same mission. The basis for psychological operations is developing propaganda and this is how they do it. They have an objective which is a measurable response expected from the target audience. Then they obtain target audience analysis, which allows them to identify, locate and gain psychologically relevant insights about target audience. The psychological operations unit must then know the interests of the target audience. After intelligence groups and the psyop unit know their objective, understand the target audience, and the interests of the target audience, they will create a product that may enhance the probability of their objective. The product may be printed material, a broadcast, sound effects, and even forming a riot [17]. The results of the product may not be known or may never fully be known, but their hope is to obtain said objective for the mission. If response isn’t what is expected from the target audience, then they go back to the drawing board and attempt to formulate another plan to fulfill whatever objective is needed by the Army and the psyop unit at the time.

            Notable operations by the US Army psyop during World War 2 consisted of more than twenty missions using hundreds of inflatable tanks and vehicles to deceive the enemy and make them believe the US military was staged hundreds of miles of from their actual location. They would also emplace fake artillery emplacements away from actual allied locations. This allowed for a potential beneficial mission on D-Day that otherwise would’ve been worse if the psyop unit had not turned the axis’ attention elsewhere [18].

            The civilian arm of military psyop is the CIA, before it was the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) it was known as the OSS (Office of Strategic Services) created in 1942 during World War two. The OSS was dissolved following the end of World War two, then later started again as the CIA in 1947 by the National Security Act [19]. The purpose of the CIA is to collect, evaluate, and disseminate vital information on economic, military, political, scientific, and other developments abroad to safeguard national security [20]. The CIA has worked with Edward Bernays, and they have a history of looking at the interest of businesses instead of national security and the human factor [21].

            Edward Bernays aided the CIA in the Guatemalan Coup known as PBSUCCESS, the 1954 coup of Guatemala to topple the democratically elected president Jacobo Arbenz. Prior to Arbenz, Jorge Ubinco was in charge which benefited United Fruit Company by utilizing them over forty percent of the land and over seventy five percent of their exports went to the United States. Arbenz created land reforms, giving land to the residents of Guatemala and effecting United Fruit Company and their profits. United Fruit Company lobbied with the executive branch of the US government to overthrow the Guatemalan government. The US government used psychological operations to manipulate the people of Guatemala to believe that Arbenz was peddling communism, and he needs to be overthrown. The CIA trained and armed militia to take over the Guatemalan government by force, but the psychological effect of the propaganda campaign regarding potential US military intervention had affected the Guatemalan forces and they chose not to fight. Arbenz resigned and the CIA backed president took over Guatemala [22].

            The CIA also utilized radio broadcasting to push propaganda; the known operations are radio free Asia, radio free Europe, radio liberty, radio Havana, and radio Baghdad were used to push a narrative against the country’s government [23]. The most nefarious plan by the US Government would have to be known as Operation Northwoods. A false flag operation considered in 1962, that would have CIA operatives dressed as Cuban Military personnel commit acts of terrorism against Americans to justify a war with Cuba [24]. Thankfully president Kennedy didn’t greenlight the operation, but unfortunately a year later the president would be assassinated. These situations are complex, but the government contemplating terrorist attacks against its own citizens is asinine but an apparent red flag about our intelligence community. Looking at it from a psychoanalytic perspective it would be the perfect way to unite a country against its opposition.

            There are a multitude of missions and campaigns conducted by the CIA that we don’t know about or may not know about until years later when the paperwork is released and sanitized. Released paperwork has shown that actions by the CIA have been conducted for the interest of big business and not necessarily for the necessity of national security. The CIA has also worked with Hollywood, mainstream media, and aided social media companies to push a narrative [25].

Propaganda in politics, the media, and Hollywood

Politicians have always skewed wherever their donors suggest they utilize their power and not with the people. Starting with Andrew Jackson, politicians utilized money from donors to campaign, the concept of donations wasn’t an issue prior to Jackson in 1828[26]. Business titans in the nineteenth century benefited from this from lobbying by Andrew Carnegie to push tariffs on incoming steel. Laisses-faire set the stage for monopolies to exist for entrepreneurs Andew Carnegie and John D Rockefeller with minimum government intervention and a lack of safety standards [27]. Today there are over twelve thousand lobbyists within the government representing businesses and special interest groups [28]. The nineteenth century was the age of the steel and railroad industry, today it’s the pharmaceutical and tech industry. In 2023 lobbying money for pharmaceutical companies far exceeded any other industry and was four times more than the contribution to education lobbying [29].

            The mainstream media and the government are almost one in the same. When it comes to pharmaceutical companies, the United States is one of only two countries in the world that allow for pharmaceutical advertising [30]. That is why during the Covid pandemic the government and the media were lockstep with the media pushing the narrative of the government and pushing the Covid vaccine while scoffing at those that pushed Ivermectin as an anecdote (because the pharmaceutical company makes little off Ivermectin but enhances their profits greatly from the Covid vaccine). The Overton window moved enough to the point that the people were in lockdown during the Covid pandemic, but during the lockdown it was ok to protest and riot on the streets if one was to protest for social injustice. It was truly George Orwell’s 1984 novel of don’t believe what your eyes show you but believe what we tell you. The narrative pushed by the media was a mostly peaceful and justifiable protest while over a billion dollars of damage occurred during said protests and there were burning buildings behind the news anchor reporting the story [31].

            The media and government are intertwined with issues that are counterintuitive to the interests of most Americans to the point that the average citizen questions their own thoughts and perception. As an example, the southern border has proven to be an issue that most Americans realize there is a problem and are not for illegal mass migration through said border, but the government and media state the numbers are not bad and you’re a racist for questioning. Therefore, the average person would listen to the media and not question or look at those that do question as being racist or bigoted even if that’s not the issue and the people wanting a closed border are neither. While the media is pushing a narrative, the government behind the scenes is using a Cloward-Piven strategy of overloading the system, creating panic, and allowing the system to collapse while also telling the public they have the solution [32]. It’s basically telling an observer to look at your left hand while your right hand is taking money out of the observer’s pocket, then explain to the observer you have a solution to figure out their pick pocket problem.  

            Most local mainstream media stations are owned by a national corporation, which disseminates a narrative to push down to all their hundreds of local stations to make sure everyone gets the same message. That is understandable considering that’s what corporations do, but it has been revealed that each station will say verbatim exactly what the corporation wants them to say and the narrative to push [33]. Taking away what makes a journalist a journalist and turning them into propaganda pushing puppets of the government. Another way to push a narrative is to silence those that think differently from the narrative. Following Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter in 2022, journalist Matt Taibbi researched and posted his results showing the FBI working with twitter to silence those that don’t fit the narrative of the government and the current political ideology [34]. Physicians that were not in line with the Covid narrative were blacklisted on social media for simply questioning the government’s approach towards Covid and the lockdowns [35]. People were demonized for even questioning the government, and the media used Bernays concept of herd mentality to ostracize those going against the grain. This created a bandwagon effect among those that follow the mainstream media religiously and looked at those that didn’t follow the narrative as being an enemy of the state [36].

            Cognitive dissonance was done by the media and the NFL for politicizing George Floyd and Jacob Blake. Jacob Blake had a warrant for sexual assault, disorderly conduct and domestic violence; when he was getting arrested, he resisted arrest and was shot in the process [37]. George Floyd served eight jail terms over the span of eight years for drug possession, theft, trespass and aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon [38]. He was in the process of illegally distributing cigarettes when the cop attempted to arrest him and kneel on his back. I’m not condoning the police actions, but Floyd and Blake are not innocent victims either. The NFL ran with this by placing Jacob Blakes name on their helmets, while the NFL donated money to Change activism campaign and metaphorically bent the knee for the court of public opinion by providing social justice statements. This sent a message to the public that these two men were innocent victims, and the cops are equivalent to Hitlers brownshirts or the Gestapo. Both men were convicted felons and not a role model for children or society. The government and the media were pushing a confirmation bias towards those that already believed the cops were bad and these men were victims. Rarely do these instances start by chance, there are usually donors, special interest groups and activists behind these campaigns and riots. The government and the media use metonymy regarding these types of acts to keep it in the public’s mind. The use of a phrase such as “I can’t breathe”, or “hands up don’t shoot”, referring subconsciously to an event without saying the event. These types of riots and movements happen so quickly after a catalyst event, that its usually preplanned by a donor, think tank, special interest group, or all of the above. They are simply waiting for the right time to start the movement.

            The government and Hollywood have worked together almost from its inception but catapulted during World War 2. Hollywood was the propaganda arm of the military by producing films that were patriotic to encourage recruitment into the armed services. This was done by having celebrities enlist into the military but primarily used for purposes with the USO for entertainment purposes. Prior to the US involvement into the war over three fourths of Americans were opposed to being involved in World War 2[39]. The assistance of Hollywood aided in bringing about patriotism and favor for war involvement. One of the more disturbing facts about World War 2 came from a diary passage of secretary of War Henry L. Stimson stated during a meeting with President Roosevelt on November 25, 1941 “Japanese are notorious for making an attack without warning, and the question was how we should maneuver them into the position of firing the first shot [40].” On November 27, 1941, General MacArthur based in the Philippines receives a message after Secretary of State Cordell Hull told Tokyo they will not accept Japan’s conditions. The message sent to General MacArthur stated “Japanese future action unpredictable but hostile action possible at any moment. If hostilities cannot, repeat cannot, be avoided the United States desires that Japan commit the first overt act [41].”  

We may never know if the United States allowed the Japanese to attack but they knew the intentions of the Japanese far in advance. Pushing the narrative onto the public that this came out of nowhere and was unprovoked was a psyop on the American public, one can read between the lines and realize the only way the public would be for war, would be if America was attacked. Therefore politics, media, and Hollywood would all work together to keep the narrative moving to push patriotism, push a movement for military recruitment, and the push toward the military industrial complex. The intelligence agencies continue to work with Hollywood and the media, they’ve assisted in development of covert narrative shows, movies, and even narrative projects that haven’t happened yet. Maybe it’s a coincidence or maybe its projection, in a 2001 pilot episode of the show The Lone Gunmen that aired March 4, 2001, the plot of the episode consisted of middle eastern terrorists hijacking a plane with the intent to crash them into the world trade center in New York City. The villains of the episode were individuals within the US Government that wanted the event to occur to increase weapons sales and boost stocks of defense contractors [42]. On September 11, 2001, that same event occurred.

Direct to Consumer Marketing, algorithms, and social media to push products

Direct to consumer advertising is utilized to inform the consumer when there needs to be an intermediary such as financial planning, pharmaceutical drugs, medical devices or any company that wants to avoid traditional distribution channels. The main benefactor of this type of advertising is the pharmaceutical industry; the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938 allowed for advertisement to be allowed for medications under certain regulations. Currently only two countries in the world allow for pharmaceutical advertising, and the United States is one of them. The first television pharmaceutical commercial occurred on May 19th, 1983, stating Boots pharmaceutical ibuprofen is cheaper than Motrin. In September 1985 the Federal Drug Administration stated pharmaceutical companies could officially and legally advertise on television commercials [43]. It was in the 1980’s that pharmaceutical companies realized they could enhance their profits greatly by advertising directly to consumers. The regulation set up by the FDA allowed said commercials if they meet standards adequate to FDA standards and didn’t allow for misleading untruths. The pharmaceutical companies utilized marketing companies by providing information that a physician would understand but a non-medical educated person may lack the ability to understand. They would promote the potential benefits while lacking the provisions of any negative or liable information. This pushed people to want more medication than necessary, and one of the many reasons other countries don’t allow for pharmaceutical advertising.

            This is not just relegated to the pharmaceutical industry, but formally the tobacco industry and now the food industry. The tobacco industry was making billions, until regulations were put in place by the surgeon general and tactics for smoking not being socially acceptable were put into place. Smoking used to be allowed everywhere and was prevalent on most if not all movies and tv shows from the nineteen forties through the nineteen seventies. Starting in the nineteen eighties movements for nonsmoking areas started and sales decreased. The owners and investors in tobacco then moved to the food industry and pushed high fructose corn syrup and dyes to be put in food to attempt similar addiction tactics as tobacco [44]. Studies have shown that high fructose corn syrup is linked to childhood obesity and higher probability of tumor growth due to the liver converting the fructose into nutrients that may aid in the growth of tumors [45]. Coca cola is the leading company for invested money toward lobbyists within the government, which explains why the purchase of soda is allowed for food stamps [46]. Food stamp sales are over twenty percent of the Coca Colas revenue. It’s a vicious cycle with the food and pharmaceutical industry that conducts a method called problem selling. Create the problem then sell the solution and allow the cycle to continue until the consumer is no longer with us and move onto the next consumer and the cycle goes on forever.

Effective marketing has moved to algorithms to break down who the consumer is and what they prefer. These breakdowns are done by understanding what the consumer searches, how much time is spent on certain searches and an analysis of their social media accounts [47]. For example, if a consumer must attend a wedding and has been searching for wedding information, there is a high probability that their pop-up advertising will be geared toward wedding dresses or other wedding information. This allows companies to advertise to their target audiences directly, while decreasing their marketing overhead by not doing a large blanket advertisement. It allows for real time dynamic pricing that is connected to said average cost at consumers’ location at said time. This method allows for future analytics for companies to know what specific customers may prefer over time and how the company may need to enhance their products.

Conclusion

It’s difficult to spot propaganda in today’s world because everything seems to be propaganda in one way or another. The purpose of this paper is to educate the readers about possible propaganda tactics and what to look for. Some tactics are utilized with no negative intent other than to reach into one’s subconscious and feel associated with a product to enhance sales for a company. Other tactics can be nefarious without regard to the lives of humans and the only care for said person or entities conducting the propaganda is the intent of fulfilling their needed objective. These tactics will enhance and become more creative, especially with the advent of artificial intelligence.

            Since the beginning of human civilization power, greed and enhanced monetary value are center behind the art of influence and will continue as long as humans exist. It’s apparent these tactics are beneficial for business, government, media and the consumers are the commodity. Greed, nefarious intent, and disregard for the consumers overall well-being have been detrimental to society. The founding fathers knew there was a high probability of these United States devolving into what we’ve become; following the delegation on the Constitution in 1787, Elizabeth Powel asked “what have we got”, and Benjamin Franklin stated, “a Republic, if you can keep it [48].”

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