EDWARD BERNAYS: THE MASTER OF MASS MANIPULATION

Morning!

I listened to a podcast earlier today that reminded me I don’t actually write that much. On it, Nat Eliason told David Perell that he committed to writing 2000 words/day for 2 years.

I probably hit 1000-1500/day. I thought that was a lot. Clearly not.

Now time to type some more I guess.

Here’s what you’re in for:

• How a master manipulator became a world-class marketer

• Breakdowns of their famous campaigns

• The lessons we can learn from them

Should take you about 3 mins to read : )

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO VERSION

BREAKING DOWN THE STRATEGY

In the 1920s, women’s rights were on the up.

Women were gaining more respect from society, getting more involved in politics and slowly integrating themselves into the workforce.

Yet still, there were rules for women that honestly… just didn’t quite make sense.

One of which was the fact women were only allowed to smoke indoors.

It’s estimated that 60% of men smoked back then. But women? Just 6%.

It wasn’t sexy for women to smoke, it wasn’t cool, it wasn’t fancy. It was dirty and it was looked down upon.

Then in 1929, Edward Bernays launched the ‘Torches Of Freedom’ campaign.

Bernays hired women to march smoking cigarettes during the 1929 New York City Easter Parade. He called them "Torches of Freedom” - a symbol of women’s liberation.

News of the parade quickly spread and over the coming weeks, these women holding their “Torches of Freedom” were in all the major newspapers.

The perception of female smokers was being broken.

But Bernays didn’t stop there, he had to drill his point home just one little bit more. So, he ran ads immediately after the campaign with the headline “An Ancient Prejudice Has Been Removed,” accompanied by the Lucky Strike cigarettes breaking the metaphorical shackles.

Over the next 40 years, cigarettes became a staple for any woman who wanted to feel empowered.

All through a simple reframe that Edward Bernays had presented.

But this wasn’t a stroke of luck for Bernays. This is what he did. He reframed ideas and reformed public perception.

Some call him a “Master manipulator,” others call him a “Masterful marketer”.

But I’ll let you be the judge of that.

Here are 4 lessons on mass manipulation that I learned from Edward Bernays:

Lesson 1: Ivory Soap

For decades, kids hated soap. I mean, there wasn’t much for them to like about it. 

• No kids enjoy being washed. 

• Soap indicates you’re about to be washed. 

• So they naturally kick off at the sight of soap. 

Which is a terrible habit for your user to have when you’re a soap company…

And in 1923 Ivory Soap had enough. They needed to stop kids hating soap. 

Should they change the smell?
Should they market differently?
Should it be more kid-friendly?

They had no idea. So they came to Bernays for a solution. 

But Bernays knew the product wasn’t an issue - it was soap for crying out loud. What Ivory Soap needed to do was change the kids’ perception of soap. 

From a punishment → Something fun.

So Bernays created a youth sculpting competition but with a catch… you didn’t use clay for your sculpture, you used Ivory Soap. 

His theory was simple: 

• The kids would have fun with the soap. 

• They’d start to form a positive ideology around soap. 

• So they wouldn’t scream and shout when their parents got Ivory Soap out. 

And he was right. 

Within just 1 year of Bernays creating the original competition, 23 million children were entering. 

And sales of Ivory Soap rocketed alongside it. 

Lesson 2: Green Ball

In 1934, Lucky Strike (the cigarette company Bernays worked with on the “Torches of Freedom” campaign) ran into yet another positioning problem - this time due to their packaging. 

At the time, Lucky Strike used a pretty strong green colour for all of their packaging. 

Pretty uncontroversial, right?

But in 1934, green was simply not in fashion. So while the “Torches of Freedom” campaign had made cigarettes cool for women, people started to stop buying Lucky Strike because the packets clashed with their wardrobes. 

(Clearly, cigarettes were more of an accessory back then.)

It was a major issue and Lucky Strike looked to Bernays for an answer. 

His solution: Make green the colour of the season. 

Over the next few months, Bernays persuaded a bunch of prominent fashion designers to feature the Lucky Strike green in their collections and then organised a “Green ball” to highlight the new fashion trend. 

100s of models, celebrities, and stars turned up to the ball. All wearing their new clothes. Their green outfits. 

Next thing you know, green was in, Lucky Strike matched and women were back buying their favourite cigarettes. 

This is crazy to me. 

But just look at the reframing of the problem Bernays did again. His approach to everything is to change perception, not the product. 

He didn’t decide to push Lucky Strike to alter their packaging, he just made the public think green was cool. 

Lesson 3: Hearty Breakfast

The “hearty” breakfast you know today, was sold to you by Bernays.

In the early 20th century, the typical breakfast was nothing like it is today.

It consisted of:

• Toast

• Fruit

• Porridge

And other lighter foods.

For bakers and fruit farmers, this was fantastic. But for pig farmers… it was an absolute disaster.

So Beech-Nut Packing Company brought in Bernays to up their bacon sales.

Bernays knew that if he was going to change the taste buds of America he couldn’t be the one shilling them bacon.

So, Bernays wrote to 5,000 physicians asking if they agreed that a “Hearty breakfast” was the healthiest thing to eat in the morning. Over 4,500 doctors responded affirmatively, supporting the benefits of a substantial breakfast that included bacon and eggs. 

(All things Bernays client happened to be wanting to sell).

He then started to push this “Hearty breakfast” to America with taglines like “The real American breakfast”.

Lesson 4: Getting People To Go To War

By now, you should understand that Bernays had a magical way of getting people to do what he wanted them to do. Usually, this just meant buying products, but in 1917 he got assigned a very different task. 

Because in 1917 no one was bothered about buying products, they were bothered about the war - in particular Woodrow Wilson. 

Wilson was struggling to drum up recruits for the US Army for WW1 and he was finding it, particularly with the many gun-shy Americans, that were avoiding the war at all costs. So, he brought in Bernays to change that. 

Their goal: Turn gun-shy Americans into anti-German soldiers. 

Quickly, Bernays figured out a way to reframe the war in order to get people to join. 

His thought process was again, pretty simple. 

If people are gun-shy, they probably don’t want to go to war because they don’t like violence and conflict. So if you inverse this, they would probably be willing to fight to keep the world safe and peaceful. 

So that’s exactly what Bernays pushed. 

He came up with the slogan, “Make the World Safe for Democracy”.

It was no longer a violent act of going to war, it was a pilgrimage to maintain peace - a beautiful reframe. 

That one line convinced 1000s of soldiers to head over to Germany, all because of Bernays manipulation (or marketing). 

 🌱 THE GREENHOUSE

Things I’ve saved this week that are worth seeing:

• How to get millions of eyes on stories. (See here)

• My new favourite LinkedIn page. (See here)

• The best article on writing I’ve read. (See here)

TL;DR

If you want to change people’s actions, change their perception. 

There are another 20 Bernays campaigns that I nearly put in this breakdown, but in each one, the lesson is really simple - focus on perception.

So much of marketing nowadays is just, “How many people can you get in front of?” But Bernays reminded me just how important, “What do those people think when you get in front of them?” actually is. 

As a marketer, it’s your job to manage and manipulate how people see your product. 

You’re in control. 

And hopefully, Bernays showed you that! 

Right, that’s all I have for you today. Hope you learned something today. 

If you did, why not forward this to a friend? 

Appreciate ya : )

Until next Sunday.

— Niall

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This has been a breakdown of Edward Bernay’s marketing strategy. I hope you have learned something and can implement a similar strategy in your business!

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