A detailed history of documentary filmmaking in the US and the UK from…
Propaganda: The Manufacture of Consent
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“Propaganda will never die out. Intelligent men must realize that propaganda is the modern instrument by which they can… help to bring order out of chaos.” — Edward Bernays
In 1916, Woodrow Wilson ran on a platform strongly opposing US entry into WWI. But just a few months after taking office, the United States declared war on Germany. Soon after, the American people, so firmly opposed to the war just a year earlier, were enthusiastic supporters.
What happened?
The short answer: propaganda.
PROPAGANDA: THE MANUFACTURE OF CONSENT is a revealing documentary about how public relations grew out of wartime propaganda—and a portrait of one of the key architects of the field, Edward Bernays.
The nephew of Sigmund Freud, Bernays refined the techniques used so successfully during the war to sell products to consumers, and ultimately to sell capitalism itself to workers. Public relations was also critical in building support for the New Deal, and in the pushback against it from the National Association of Manufacturers, which created materials including films aimed at children on the glories of manufacturing.
Bacon and eggs as part of a hearty breakfast? The work of Bernays on behalf of a bacon company. Cigarettes as a sign of women’s liberation? Bernays, again. Casting the democratically elected government of Guatemala as a Communist threat to justify US invasion on behalf of the United Fruit Company? Once more, Bernays.
There was nothing shadowy about Bernays. He wrote a book detailing his techniques and discusses them in an archival interview with Bill Moyers from 1983. Still, it is jarring to see his pride in hijacking the women’s suffrage movement in order to sell more cigarettes—one of many illuminating moments in this film.
Featuring Noam Chomsky, Chris Hedges, Public Relations Museum co-founder Shelley Spector, historian Stuart Ewen, sociologist David Miller, and Bernays’ daughter Anne, PROPAGANDA offers an insightful look into the development of public relations techniques, and how they continue to affect us today.
“The documentary reveals the cogs of the "manipulation of the masses" used by the elite of the time, guided by the freshly theorized idea that to convince, it is necessary to address the emotions and instincts of crowds.” —Le Monde
Citation
Main credits
Leipold, Jimmy (filmmaker)
Genevaux, Anne (film producer)
Desjours, Sébastien (narrator)
Other credits
Editing, Pauline Pallier; original music, Siegfried Canto; cinematography, Denis Gaubert.
Distributor subjects
Advertising & Marketing; Media StudiesKeywords
Edward Bernays; "Propaganda: The Manufacture of Consent"; Icarus Films; Noam Chomsky; advertising; psychoanalysis; World War I,behavior; theory; ovid_ca; propaganda; consumerism; ,doc; history; politics
WEBVTT
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millions of messages invade our screens.
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Their aim?
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To direct our choices in purchasing, voting,
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or adhering to an idea.
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They are omnipresent and shape our vision of the world.
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They rely on persuasion techniques, invented a century ago,
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in the United States.
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They were developed in less than 50 years,
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by a small group of thinkers,
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in order to control the masses.
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To impose their power, authoritarian regimes used force.
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Western democracies invented public relations.
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One of the group\'s leading theoreticians was Edward Bernays.
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the engineering of consent,
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based on Thomas Jefferson\'s principle,
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that in a democratic society,
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everything depends on the consent of the people.
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the United States declared war on Germany.
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Within weeks, huge numbers of Americans
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had enlisted in the military.
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Their president, Woodrow Wilson,
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had convinces them to shed blood
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in the defense of democracy.
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And yet, one year earlier,
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this same president had promised Americans
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they would not enter into World War I.
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ran for office in 1916, he ran under the slogan,
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he kept us out of war.
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There was this idea that this war was a European matter.
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It had nothing to do with American democracy, so to speak.
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So, as the United States began to prepare
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to enter into the war, there was a big problem.
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was how do we control the masses,
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in order to prosecute the war.
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But inside the White House,
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others advocated a different solution.
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we can create a system, through the government,
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of mass propaganda, that will in essence,
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seduce the masses into supporting the war effort.
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We need to build up a machinery
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that will sell the war to the American people,
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that will advertise the war.
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based on the codes of the advertising, entertainment,
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and widely popular film industries.
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♪ Over hill, over dale ♪
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♪ We have hit the dusty trail ♪
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like Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks,
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were called upon to stir up the crowds.
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Thousands of other influential people
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were specially selected,
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to carry the governments message across the country.
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♪ Hi, hi, hee ♪
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♪ In the field artillery ♪
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♪ Shout out your numbers loud and strong ♪
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who were respected authorities within a local area,
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would get up and give a speech on behalf of the war.
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just almost spontaneously, gets up and gives a 4-minute talk
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about why we should go to war.
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Wilson set up a special department, the Creel Commission.
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It was up of the professionals of the PR world,
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journalists, admin, and press agents.
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Among them was a young man of 26,
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who had already earned a solid reputation as a press agent,
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in the entertainment business.
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His name, Edward Bernays.
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Along with most members of the commission,
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he shared a vision of the crowd,
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which was wide-spread among the leaders
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of the major Western democracies.
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It rested on theories, expended on barely 20 years earlier,
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by the French polymath, Gustave Le Bon,
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who\'s book \"The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind\"
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established the ground rules of crowd psychology.
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that these people are incapable of rational thought.
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They\'re incapable of being approached and reasoned with.
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They have become microbes.
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They are driven, they\'ve become like a virus,
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animals driven by their spinal cord.
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He lays out an anatomy of the crowd,
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as a group of people who can\'t understand reason.
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governments appeal to their instincts and emotions.
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that try to bypass in fact, critical thought,
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and touch people in the gut.
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And that\'s how you got the stories of,
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the fictitious stories of all the bayoneting babies
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in Belgium and all this kind of stuff.
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that are very powerful and deeply ingrained,
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which in many ways degrade
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the meaning of what\'s actually being said,
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and instead promote and focus on the level of feeling.
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into raving anti-German fanatics.
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The Boston Symphony Orchestra couldn\'t play Beethoven,
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for example, \'cause we don\'t want to touch
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this hideous monstrosity.
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And the Creel Commission was very effective.
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the Creel Commission managed to turn public opinion around,
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without the use of force,
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and without changing the system of governments.
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For the great captains of industry, like the Rockefellers,
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the Carnegies, and the J.P. Morgans,
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the success of these propaganda methods
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opened up perspectives, which came at just the right moment.
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Since the late 19th century, a succession of strikes,
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protests, and riots had been rocking the whole country.
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not just in the United States,
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but throughout the industrializing world,
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caused a level of immiseration.
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the steel mills, lived a little better than serfs.
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Unions were broken and outlawed.
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So, it was a real battle between, let\'s call,
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the masses and the oligarchs.
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were regarded simply as robbing the rest of society
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of the resources, by accumulating profits for themselves,
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as personal wealth.
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the situation had reached a breaking point.
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Rockefeller was suspected of being responsible
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for the massacre of 66 strikers,
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at one of his local coal mines in Ludlow.
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He narrowly escaped an assassination attempt
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carried out by an anarchist.
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about the possibility of their world being taken over.
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as ideal solutions for putting an end to social demands.
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If it was possible to convince Americans
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to whole-heartedly back the war effort,
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without questioning the principles of democracy,
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then it was clearly be possible
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to persuade the working classes to adhere to a system,
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they had until then always rejected, capitalism.
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and recognizing the importance of ideas as weapons,
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I decided to see whether we could not apply
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what I had learned in the war to peace-time pursuits.
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Edward Bernays opened his first office in New York,
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one of the country\'s main seats of power.
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To define his role for his future clients,
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he styled himself as a public relations council.
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so they invented other terms for it,
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and Edward Bernays was very clear about that.
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He took credit, himself,
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for coming up with the term public relations council,
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in order to give what was propaganda a new lease of life,
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by calling it something different.
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And that\'s a time-honored technique of public relations,
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of propaganda, is if something\'s unpopular,
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just call it something else and then no one will know.
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by one of the most renowned American intellectuals
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of the day, journalist and author Walter Lippmann.
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This former advisor to Woodrow Wilson saw propaganda
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as the only true tool for controlling the crowd.
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A theory to which consecrated a book,
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which would revolution the principles
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of democratic governance, \"Public Opinion\".
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and we have to be protected from the trampling
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and the roar of the bewildered herd.
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And the best way, we can\'t do it by force,
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and the best way to do it is by
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what Lippmann called manufacture of consent,
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a new art in the practice of democracy.
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in essence, get the masses to support policies
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that are against their own interest.
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most of them former members of the Creel Commission,
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were hired by the biggest companies of the day.
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Their mission?
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To convince public opinion
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that the prosperity of private enterprises
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would benefit the entire population.
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To do so, a radical change was required.
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Turn the citizen into a consumer.
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Buying should no longer be a question of necessity,
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but of desire.
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and we were building big companies,
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and we were trying to bring the public along,
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to buy all the things that these,
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the products these companies were anxious to produce.
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and also to sell the idea that business,
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rather than socialism, will provide the good life.
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an expert on the subject.
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One of his first successes was a campaign carried out
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for the Beech-Nut Packing Company,
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a famous producer of bacon.
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And the normal way a company would have done that,
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was to go out and compete and say we have a better bacon
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than the other competing bacon makers.
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Eddie Bernays said, \"That\'s not the way to do it.
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\"We want to enlarge the market for everybody.\"
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which had brought success to the Creel Commission,
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opinion leadership.
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He decided to use the powerful influence of one of the most
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respected professions in society, doctors.
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asking lots of doctors and other trusted people
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in the field of nutrition and health,
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what do you think, do you think that notion of an all,
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of a hearty breakfast is a useful thing.
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Should we be eating, what he called, a hearty breakfast?
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was good for your health.
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Edward Bernays sent the results
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to 4,000 doctors across the country.
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Unwittingly, they would pass onto their patients,
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a message whose purpose was purely commercial.
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and you\'re interested in your health,
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and there\'s 4,000 doctors saying that you better eat bacon,
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you\'ll do it.
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Bacon and eggs and buttered toast.
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There\'s nothing like a good healthy breakfast
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to start the day off right,
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and a meal like this should satisfy anyone.
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He\'ll have to learn that food has a lot to do
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with the way you look and the way you feel.
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a cultural reference,
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that would enjoy a long and healthy life.
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254
00:15:30.370 --> 00:15:31.683
a dog without a bone.
255
00:15:32.910 --> 00:15:34.970
256
00:15:34.970 --> 00:15:37.283
taking advice from an authority figure,
257
00:15:38.610 --> 00:15:41.690
is the foundation of everything that we do
258
00:15:41.690 --> 00:15:43.450
in public relations.
259
00:15:43.450 --> 00:15:45.570
260
00:15:45.570 --> 00:15:48.140
doctors in all branches of medicine,
261
00:15:48.140 --> 00:15:51.167
doctors in all parts of the country were asked,
262
00:15:51.167 --> 00:15:53.620
\"What cigarette do you smoke, Doctor?\"
263
00:15:53.620 --> 00:15:54.720
Doctors in every branch--
264
00:15:54.720 --> 00:15:56.910
265
00:15:56.910 --> 00:15:59.331
became a PR tool much-used by advertisers.
266
00:15:59.331 --> 00:16:01.870
267
00:16:01.870 --> 00:16:03.640
surgeons--
268
00:16:03.640 --> 00:16:06.336
the cigarette, as product for health and well-being.
269
00:16:06.336 --> 00:16:07.830
270
00:16:07.830 --> 00:16:09.763
The cigarette so many doctors enjoy.
271
00:16:20.200 --> 00:16:22.290
272
00:16:22.290 --> 00:16:25.760
for innovative tools to improve his powers of persuasion.
273
00:16:25.760 --> 00:16:28.313
He was particularly drawn to psychoanalysis.
274
00:16:29.480 --> 00:16:31.850
So much so, that he oversaw the translation
275
00:16:31.850 --> 00:16:34.320
of the first works of the father of psychoanalysis,
276
00:16:34.320 --> 00:16:36.970
Sigmund Freud, into English.
277
00:16:36.970 --> 00:16:37.900
But the bond between them
278
00:16:37.900 --> 00:16:39.910
was more than strictly professional.
279
00:16:39.910 --> 00:16:43.103
Edward Bernays was the double nephew of Sigmund Freud.
280
00:16:44.950 --> 00:16:47.300
281
00:16:47.300 --> 00:16:51.630
both familial and also emotional relationship,
282
00:16:51.630 --> 00:16:52.933
with Sigmund Freud.
283
00:16:53.930 --> 00:16:56.557 line:15%
Bernays\'s mother was Sigmund Freud\'s sister.
284
00:16:56.557 --> 00:17:00.210 line:15%
Bernays\'s father\'s sister was married to Sigmund Freud.
285
00:17:00.210 --> 00:17:03.610 line:15%
So, it was a lot of genetic material from Freud,
286
00:17:03.610 --> 00:17:05.353 line:15%
inside of Bernays.
287
00:17:07.620 --> 00:17:11.520
And as a child, he would sit at the dinner table,
288
00:17:11.520 --> 00:17:13.930 line:15%
night after night, while his parents would be talking
289
00:17:13.930 --> 00:17:15.963 line:15%
about Uncle Siggy.
290
00:17:16.960 --> 00:17:20.040 line:15%
291
00:17:20.040 --> 00:17:23.300
theory of dream interpretation.
292
00:17:23.300 --> 00:17:28.300
I heard about psychology as being an important force
293
00:17:28.850 --> 00:17:31.920
in evaluating human behavior.
294
00:17:31.920 --> 00:17:36.920
I heard of repression and regression and suppression.
295
00:17:37.800 --> 00:17:39.640
296
00:17:39.640 --> 00:17:41.640
a professional nephew.
297
00:17:41.640 --> 00:17:43.350
And he used his connection,
298
00:17:43.350 --> 00:17:45.690
in the first 10 minutes that you met him,
299
00:17:45.690 --> 00:17:49.060
you learned that he was the double nephew of Sigmund Freud,
300
00:17:49.060 --> 00:17:50.650
because that somehow gave him
301
00:17:50.650 --> 00:17:53.960
not just a sense of being associated with a famous person,
302
00:17:53.960 --> 00:17:58.960
but being associated with a smart, opinion-changing,
303
00:18:00.230 --> 00:18:02.640
revolutionary character like Sigmund Freud.
304
00:18:02.640 --> 00:18:07.140
305
00:18:07.140 --> 00:18:10.130
they think they\'re ruled by their own judgment
306
00:18:10.970 --> 00:18:13.350
and rational thinking, but they\'re not.
307
00:18:13.350 --> 00:18:17.030
They\'re ruled by their unconscious or their subconscious,
308
00:18:17.030 --> 00:18:18.820
and they don\'t even know it,
309
00:18:18.820 --> 00:18:21.814
so you have to bypass their logic.
310
00:18:26.310 --> 00:18:28.040
311
00:18:28.040 --> 00:18:30.910
into practice, for the first time, for one of his clients,
312
00:18:30.910 --> 00:18:32.563
the American Tobacco Company.
313
00:18:35.900 --> 00:18:38.530
The company felt it was the victim of a social taboo,
314
00:18:38.530 --> 00:18:41.090
which prevented it from doubling its profits.
315
00:18:41.090 --> 00:18:43.483
Women were not allowed to smoke in public.
316
00:18:44.750 --> 00:18:47.290
So, the company entrusted Edward Bernays with the task
317
00:18:47.290 --> 00:18:51.293
of turning women into open tobacco consumers, just like men.
318
00:18:54.160 --> 00:18:59.160
319
00:18:59.340 --> 00:19:02.883
this guy named A.A. Brill, and he goes to see Brill,
320
00:19:04.328 --> 00:19:07.297
and he says, \"Brill, I\'m trying to sell cigarettes to women.
321
00:19:07.297 --> 00:19:09.290
\"What do they represent?\"
322
00:19:09.290 --> 00:19:11.967
And Brill says, \"Well, this is simple.
323
00:19:11.967 --> 00:19:14.067
\"They represent the penis.
324
00:19:14.067 --> 00:19:16.747
\"And all women, they have penis envy.
325
00:19:16.747 --> 00:19:21.747
\"So, in fact, if you can get them to have a penis,
326
00:19:23.007 --> 00:19:25.387
\"or at least a symbolic penis,
327
00:19:25.387 --> 00:19:27.650
\"this is something that they will respond to.\"
328
00:19:27.650 --> 00:19:31.960
329
00:19:31.960 --> 00:19:36.630
the Suffrage Movement, which was 1919 and through the 20s,
330
00:19:36.630 --> 00:19:38.860
women were still galvanized,
331
00:19:38.860 --> 00:19:42.090
by trying to fight for their rights.
332
00:19:42.090 --> 00:19:43.670
333
00:19:43.670 --> 00:19:46.730
some of the leading socialites of the day.
334
00:19:46.730 --> 00:19:48.180
He convinces these women
335
00:19:48.180 --> 00:19:49.550
that they\'re gonna be striking a blow,
336
00:19:49.550 --> 00:19:51.600
not for American Tobacco Company,
337
00:19:51.600 --> 00:19:54.590
which they don\'t know is his true client,
338
00:19:54.590 --> 00:19:56.623
but for women\'s liberation.
339
00:19:59.270 --> 00:20:01.030
340
00:20:01.030 --> 00:20:03.530
Edward Bernays decided to use a popular event
341
00:20:03.530 --> 00:20:05.330
as a springboard.
342
00:20:05.330 --> 00:20:08.023
The famous, annual Easter parade in New York.
343
00:20:12.470 --> 00:20:15.540
344
00:20:15.540 --> 00:20:17.120
lighting up a cigarette,
345
00:20:17.120 --> 00:20:20.190
that he calls their torches of freedom.
346
00:20:20.190 --> 00:20:23.080
And to ensure that this event isn\'t missed,
347
00:20:23.080 --> 00:20:26.050
he recruits all the photographers,
348
00:20:26.050 --> 00:20:28.030
from all the leading newspapers
349
00:20:28.030 --> 00:20:29.940
and wire services around the world,
350
00:20:29.940 --> 00:20:31.390
to take a picture of that.
351
00:20:50.120 --> 00:20:54.800
352
00:20:54.800 --> 00:20:57.040
on its first page.
353
00:20:57.040 --> 00:21:00.353
They treated it as news, which it indeed was.
354
00:21:10.730 --> 00:21:15.730
Within five weeks, the smoking rooms of theaters in New York
355
00:21:18.030 --> 00:21:21.330
opened their smoking rooms to women smoking,
356
00:21:21.330 --> 00:21:23.360
which had never happened before.
357
00:21:23.360 --> 00:21:26.760
358
00:21:26.760 --> 00:21:27.633
359
00:21:34.370 --> 00:21:38.300
360
00:21:38.300 --> 00:21:42.050
that jut out from the normal society
361
00:21:42.930 --> 00:21:45.913
and therefore, which become newsworthy.
362
00:21:46.850 --> 00:21:51.340
And so, part of the role of the public relations agent
363
00:21:51.340 --> 00:21:55.610
is the need to understand what looks like news,
364
00:21:55.610 --> 00:21:58.410
what tastes like news, what smells like news.
365
00:21:58.410 --> 00:22:02.770
366
00:22:02.770 --> 00:22:04.280
that we try to do.
367
00:22:04.280 --> 00:22:06.620
And part of being newsworthy, of course,
368
00:22:06.620 --> 00:22:09.290
is doing something new and being the first.
369
00:22:09.290 --> 00:22:12.360
Nobody remembers the second guy who landed on the moon.
370
00:22:20.290 --> 00:22:21.640
371
00:22:21.640 --> 00:22:24.610
the consumption habits of Americans had deeply changed,
372
00:22:24.610 --> 00:22:26.030
thanks to the work carried out
373
00:22:26.030 --> 00:22:27.480
by public relations councils.
374
00:22:43.416 --> 00:22:44.730
They even managed to change
375
00:22:44.730 --> 00:22:47.610
and promote the image of the captains of industry.
376
00:22:47.610 --> 00:22:50.720
John D. Rockefeller, himself, was no longer seen
377
00:22:50.720 --> 00:22:54.240
as a hated figure of capitalism, as he once was,
378
00:22:54.240 --> 00:22:56.313
but as a generous philanthropist.
379
00:23:04.770 --> 00:23:08.710
PR agencies prospered, especially on Madison Avenue,
380
00:23:08.710 --> 00:23:10.890
which would become the epicenter of advertising
381
00:23:10.890 --> 00:23:12.163
in the United States.
382
00:23:13.962 --> 00:23:16.900
♪ The blues jumped a rabbit ♪
383
00:23:16.900 --> 00:23:18.080
384
00:23:18.080 --> 00:23:21.410
the most sought after expert in public relations.
385
00:23:21.410 --> 00:23:23.230
He moved into a luxury hotel suit,
386
00:23:23.230 --> 00:23:25.420
where he received all of the country\'s wealthiest
387
00:23:25.420 --> 00:23:27.320
and most influential men.
388
00:23:27.320 --> 00:23:30.930
♪ Run him a solid mile ♪
389
00:23:30.930 --> 00:23:34.853
390
00:23:36.920 --> 00:23:39.190
He gave parties all the time.
391
00:23:39.190 --> 00:23:42.050
High-achievers came to his parties.
392
00:23:42.050 --> 00:23:46.200
They were architects and artists, lawyers
393
00:23:46.200 --> 00:23:50.320
and politicians, magazine editors.
394
00:23:50.320 --> 00:23:52.220
Always people at the top.
395
00:23:52.220 --> 00:23:54.793
396
00:23:55.770 --> 00:23:58.030
but the people who needed to know him
397
00:23:58.030 --> 00:24:01.953
and who he needed to know him, knew him.
398
00:24:04.410 --> 00:24:08.500
399
00:24:08.500 --> 00:24:11.080
the fruit of 10 years experience.
400
00:24:11.080 --> 00:24:12.910
In it, he laid out, with precision,
401
00:24:12.910 --> 00:24:14.790
the main principles and techniques
402
00:24:14.790 --> 00:24:17.600
of manipulating the masses in democracies.
403
00:24:17.600 --> 00:24:20.563
The work elevated him to the status of visionary.
404
00:24:33.710 --> 00:24:38.710
That kind of confession is evidence of the fact
405
00:24:39.780 --> 00:24:43.780
that the power of propaganda is so immense,
406
00:24:43.780 --> 00:24:46.843
that even when the puppet masters are confessing,
407
00:24:47.700 --> 00:24:50.360
those who are being manipulated can\'t resist.
408
00:24:50.360 --> 00:24:52.460
409
00:24:52.460 --> 00:24:55.330
with U.S. commercial propaganda,
410
00:24:55.330 --> 00:24:59.120
the kind that Bernays and the PR industry was developing.
411
00:24:59.120 --> 00:25:00.860
Goebbels studied it carefully.
412
00:25:00.860 --> 00:25:01.880
He refers to it.
413
00:25:01.880 --> 00:25:04.370
They adapted it to their purposes
414
00:25:04.370 --> 00:25:07.068
and very successfully, unfortunately.
415
00:25:23.103 --> 00:25:26.080
416
00:25:26.080 --> 00:25:28.333
Food and medicine needed in Aurora.
417
00:25:29.377 --> 00:25:30.210
Food and medicine--
418
00:25:30.210 --> 00:25:33.760
419
00:25:33.760 --> 00:25:35.310
tore apart the apparent balance
420
00:25:35.310 --> 00:25:38.930
of the 1920s\' model of the capitalist society.
421
00:25:38.930 --> 00:25:42.270
The United States plunged into the Great Depression,
422
00:25:42.270 --> 00:25:44.480
which left tens of millions of Americans
423
00:25:44.480 --> 00:25:46.303
jobless and homeless.
424
00:25:47.529 --> 00:25:50.170
425
00:25:50.170 --> 00:25:54.670
had been selling so hard throughout the 1920s,
426
00:25:54.670 --> 00:25:59.670
was now considered to be the embodiment of evil.
427
00:25:59.940 --> 00:26:01.533
428
00:26:02.560 --> 00:26:05.563
We face it with singleness of purpose
429
00:26:05.563 --> 00:26:08.300
and above all with faith.
430
00:26:08.300 --> 00:26:09.810
Keep that faith constant.
431
00:26:09.810 --> 00:26:12.190
432
00:26:12.190 --> 00:26:14.400
Franklin D. Roosevelt came across as the man
433
00:26:14.400 --> 00:26:16.450
who could change everything.
434
00:26:16.450 --> 00:26:18.060
But to earn the people\'s trust,
435
00:26:18.060 --> 00:26:21.283
the manufacture of consent would be a determining factor.
436
00:26:23.050 --> 00:26:26.143
So he too called upon experts in public relations.
437
00:26:31.060 --> 00:26:33.960
438
00:26:33.960 --> 00:26:37.850
and my granddaughter, Anna Roosevelt--
439
00:26:37.850 --> 00:26:39.170
440
00:26:39.170 --> 00:26:40.670
Roosevelt took the leading role
441
00:26:40.670 --> 00:26:42.982
in an unprecedented PR campaign.
442
00:26:42.982 --> 00:26:44.897
443
00:26:47.264 --> 00:26:48.097
444
00:26:48.097 --> 00:26:49.930
445
00:26:49.930 --> 00:26:52.040
he was systematically seen with his family,
446
00:26:52.040 --> 00:26:53.620
going about his daily life,
447
00:26:53.620 --> 00:26:56.470
like no other president had been before him.
448
00:26:56.470 --> 00:27:01.470
449
00:27:02.630 --> 00:27:06.600
The way he sat in his car and waved to people,
450
00:27:06.600 --> 00:27:10.253
Mrs. Roosevelt, as if he was a hearty, young man.
451
00:27:11.190 --> 00:27:12.693
It\'s all symbols.
452
00:27:13.590 --> 00:27:16.340
453
00:27:16.340 --> 00:27:19.250
and he opted for another method, pedagogy.
454
00:27:19.250 --> 00:27:21.920
Explaining to his follow citizens, in simple terms,
455
00:27:21.920 --> 00:27:24.803
how he planned to put right the country and it\'s economy.
456
00:27:27.030 --> 00:27:31.450
He and his advisors developed the so-called fireside chats.
457
00:27:31.450 --> 00:27:34.870
A series of 28 radio addresses given by the president,
458
00:27:34.870 --> 00:27:36.493
spread over 10 years.
459
00:27:37.850 --> 00:27:39.860
460
00:27:39.860 --> 00:27:41.850
since I have talked with the people of this country
461
00:27:41.850 --> 00:27:43.730
about our national problems.
462
00:27:43.730 --> 00:27:47.440
I am going to establish a government market
463
00:27:47.440 --> 00:27:49.593
for gold in the United States.
464
00:27:50.760 --> 00:27:52.500
465
00:27:52.500 --> 00:27:55.700
He talked to the listeners
466
00:27:55.700 --> 00:27:58.660
like people he respected like an equal,
467
00:27:58.660 --> 00:28:03.083
and I think the public was given faith by that.
468
00:28:04.760 --> 00:28:05.840
469
00:28:05.840 --> 00:28:10.770
the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to buy or sell gold.
470
00:28:10.770 --> 00:28:15.770
471
00:28:16.160 --> 00:28:21.160
to make an inscrutable system legible to people.
472
00:28:22.240 --> 00:28:23.073
473
00:28:23.073 --> 00:28:24.370
pounded by ever-increasing traffic,
474
00:28:24.370 --> 00:28:26.230
are modernized, resurfaced.
475
00:28:26.230 --> 00:28:29.160
Thousands of blocks, which means huge saving, vital to the--
476
00:28:29.160 --> 00:28:30.700
477
00:28:30.700 --> 00:28:32.330
of a series of documentaries,
478
00:28:32.330 --> 00:28:36.130
aimed at explaining his flagship program, the New Deal.
479
00:28:36.130 --> 00:28:39.310
It\'s basic principles rested on government interventionism
480
00:28:39.310 --> 00:28:41.030
to kickstart the economy.
481
00:28:41.030 --> 00:28:42.400
482
00:28:42.400 --> 00:28:44.600
New modern-housing developments will be erected,
483
00:28:44.600 --> 00:28:46.190
providing better living conditions
484
00:28:46.190 --> 00:28:47.851
for workers in the low-income groups.
485
00:28:48.870 --> 00:28:51.690
486
00:28:51.690 --> 00:28:53.790
the Roosevelt administration went a step further,
487
00:28:53.790 --> 00:28:54.870
by putting together a group
488
00:28:54.870 --> 00:28:57.000
of renowned photographers and writers,
489
00:28:57.000 --> 00:28:59.280
in order to show Americans the terrible effects
490
00:28:59.280 --> 00:29:01.430
of the depression inside their own country.
491
00:29:03.570 --> 00:29:05.110
492
00:29:05.110 --> 00:29:08.360
who came out of the advertising industry
493
00:29:08.360 --> 00:29:10.610
or the public relations industry.
494
00:29:10.610 --> 00:29:15.610
It was people who had really thought about using images
495
00:29:15.830 --> 00:29:18.653
in a way that leave people smarter than they were.
496
00:29:21.691 --> 00:29:22.840
The American people
497
00:29:22.840 --> 00:29:26.420
discovered an America they had no idea existed.
498
00:29:26.420 --> 00:29:28.840
The emotional and symbolic force of these pictures
499
00:29:28.840 --> 00:29:30.493
moved hearts and minds.
500
00:29:35.560 --> 00:29:39.430
501
00:29:39.430 --> 00:29:40.690
that emotion and reason
502
00:29:40.690 --> 00:29:43.301
don\'t need to separated from each other.
503
00:29:46.080 --> 00:29:49.033
To some extent, it\'s the manufacture of consent,
504
00:29:50.020 --> 00:29:55.003
but it\'s, I think, an attempt to create informed consent.
505
00:29:58.790 --> 00:30:02.040
There\'s nothing wrong with being persuasive,
506
00:30:02.040 --> 00:30:07.040
as long as your persuasion is not interested in deception,
507
00:30:10.723 --> 00:30:13.483
in turning people away from seeing things as they are.
508
00:30:23.340 --> 00:30:26.190
509
00:30:26.190 --> 00:30:28.150
Roosevelt sought to deploy new reforms,
510
00:30:28.150 --> 00:30:30.343
to limit the power of companies and banks.
511
00:30:33.050 --> 00:30:37.280
512
00:30:37.280 --> 00:30:40.480
between working people
513
00:30:41.350 --> 00:30:46.170
and a completely dismantled middle class,
514
00:30:46.170 --> 00:30:49.020
against great wealth and business.
515
00:30:49.020 --> 00:30:52.230
516
00:30:52.230 --> 00:30:56.830
are being stepped on and are going to be stepped on.
517
00:30:56.830 --> 00:31:01.510
518
00:31:01.510 --> 00:31:05.000
519
00:31:05.000 --> 00:31:08.640
was engaged in the National Association Manufacturers,
520
00:31:08.640 --> 00:31:12.020
and their biggest program, at the time,
521
00:31:12.020 --> 00:31:13.940
was a public relations program.
522
00:31:13.940 --> 00:31:17.660
523
00:31:17.660 --> 00:31:22.660
that private enterprise is the, privately held industry,
524
00:31:24.000 --> 00:31:27.100
is the key to the good life,
525
00:31:27.100 --> 00:31:29.580
that Roosevelt is now suggesting
526
00:31:29.580 --> 00:31:32.820
the government can now help be an advocate for.
527
00:31:32.820 --> 00:31:34.120
528
00:31:34.120 --> 00:31:35.800
This is Lowell Thomas.
529
00:31:35.800 --> 00:31:38.930
And I need to ask one or two questions,
530
00:31:38.930 --> 00:31:41.460
which you have probably asked.
531
00:31:41.460 --> 00:31:43.310
And then I intend to answer them.
532
00:31:43.310 --> 00:31:46.110
To what new horizons can we look now?
533
00:31:46.110 --> 00:31:48.130
Where are tomorrow\'s opportunities?
534
00:31:48.130 --> 00:31:51.310
535
00:31:51.310 --> 00:31:53.630
set out to reestablish, as quickly as possible,
536
00:31:53.630 --> 00:31:55.870
the people\'s trust in the capitalist system.
537
00:31:55.870 --> 00:31:58.960
To do so, they would fight the president\'s campaign
538
00:31:58.960 --> 00:32:00.310
with a number of their own.
539
00:32:08.440 --> 00:32:11.120
For 20 years, NAM campaigns sought to sell
540
00:32:11.120 --> 00:32:13.200
an idealized version of society,
541
00:32:13.200 --> 00:32:14.763
for which Americans clamored.
542
00:32:17.310 --> 00:32:21.510
Wherever Roosevelt was selling reality, NAM sold dreams.
543
00:32:21.510 --> 00:32:23.930
Wherever Roosevelt was speaking to citizens,
544
00:32:23.930 --> 00:32:26.110
NAM spoke to consumers.
545
00:32:26.110 --> 00:32:26.943
546
00:32:26.943 --> 00:32:28.900
and see them many different way.
547
00:32:28.900 --> 00:32:30.650
548
00:32:30.650 --> 00:32:32.350
We don\'t like government.
549
00:32:32.350 --> 00:32:34.880
We live private business.
550
00:32:34.880 --> 00:32:36.960
551
00:32:36.960 --> 00:32:39.080
in the same way you would talk about freedom
552
00:32:39.080 --> 00:32:41.260
and democracy and justice.
553
00:32:41.260 --> 00:32:42.580
Yes, they were selling a dream,
554
00:32:42.580 --> 00:32:46.050
but they tied the dream into American values.
555
00:32:46.050 --> 00:32:47.584
556
00:32:48.688 --> 00:32:49.646
In the factory.
557
00:32:52.590 --> 00:32:54.524
This is the workman.
558
00:32:54.524 --> 00:32:56.067
Who tends the machine.
559
00:32:56.920 --> 00:32:57.801
In the factory.
560
00:32:59.830 --> 00:33:00.990
561
00:33:00.990 --> 00:33:05.500
of the benefits of industry, NAM also turned to pedagogy,
562
00:33:05.500 --> 00:33:09.473
notably, by addressing the consumers of tomorrow, children.
563
00:33:11.060 --> 00:33:12.740
564
00:33:12.740 --> 00:33:14.440
He needs a widget on his farm,
565
00:33:14.440 --> 00:33:16.213
and he\'s in a hurry to buy one.
566
00:33:17.500 --> 00:33:19.440
Here\'s your money, Mr. Widget Maker.
567
00:33:19.440 --> 00:33:21.800
And here\'s your widget, Mr. Farmer.
568
00:33:21.800 --> 00:33:24.910
And all the customers take their widgets home,
569
00:33:24.910 --> 00:33:27.153
to all parts of the country.
570
00:33:30.370 --> 00:33:32.040
571
00:33:32.040 --> 00:33:34.280
large enterprises set out to meet Americans
572
00:33:34.280 --> 00:33:37.053
where they most liked to be, at home.
573
00:33:42.660 --> 00:33:45.400
Until the 1950s, a traveling exhibition,
574
00:33:45.400 --> 00:33:49.250
promoting industrial engineering, crisscrossed America.
575
00:33:49.250 --> 00:33:51.717
General Motors\' \"Parade of Progress\".
576
00:33:53.000 --> 00:33:54.170
577
00:33:54.170 --> 00:33:55.940
It\'s absolutely free.
578
00:33:55.940 --> 00:33:57.783
Come see the big tent show.
579
00:33:59.520 --> 00:34:02.020
This device has a duel personality.
580
00:34:02.020 --> 00:34:05.180
It will actually freeze and fry at the same time.
581
00:34:05.180 --> 00:34:06.970
582
00:34:06.970 --> 00:34:10.620
to bring your daily paper right to your easy chair.
583
00:34:10.620 --> 00:34:11.710
Fantastic?
584
00:34:11.710 --> 00:34:12.543
Maybe.
585
00:34:15.380 --> 00:34:17.340
586
00:34:17.340 --> 00:34:19.440
capitalism and the benefits of consumption
587
00:34:19.440 --> 00:34:21.040
were sold for over 20 years,
588
00:34:21.040 --> 00:34:24.123
as the foundations of the American dream.
589
00:34:27.070 --> 00:34:30.473
590
00:34:32.050 --> 00:34:33.653
played the long game.
591
00:34:34.920 --> 00:34:37.910
That is to say, even though many of them knew
592
00:34:38.800 --> 00:34:43.800
that they would not live to see their desires
593
00:34:44.360 --> 00:34:47.433
and their goals met, that didn\'t matter.
594
00:34:49.310 --> 00:34:53.293
They were willing to do it over generations.
595
00:35:00.890 --> 00:35:03.960
596
00:35:03.960 --> 00:35:07.700
which became the showcase of the American way of life.
597
00:35:07.700 --> 00:35:09.660
598
00:35:09.660 --> 00:35:11.580
turning in the direction of a new world
599
00:35:11.580 --> 00:35:13.680
that symbolizes man\'s dreams,
600
00:35:13.680 --> 00:35:16.530
prophecies, hopes, and aspirations.
601
00:35:16.530 --> 00:35:17.363
The New York World\'s Fair of--
602
00:35:17.363 --> 00:35:19.010
603
00:35:19.010 --> 00:35:20.700
the city hosted the World\'s Fair.
604
00:35:20.700 --> 00:35:21.940
605
00:35:21.940 --> 00:35:24.700
606
00:35:24.700 --> 00:35:26.570
in industrial history.
607
00:35:26.570 --> 00:35:29.260
608
00:35:29.260 --> 00:35:30.313
But let us skim the surface--
609
00:35:30.313 --> 00:35:31.877
610
00:35:31.877 --> 00:35:35.340
was none other than Edward Bernays.
611
00:35:35.340 --> 00:35:38.330
612
00:35:38.330 --> 00:35:40.630
and talking about the different exhibits
613
00:35:40.630 --> 00:35:42.890
and getting companies to exhibit there,
614
00:35:42.890 --> 00:35:44.850
such as General Motors,
615
00:35:44.850 --> 00:35:47.270
which had been his client in the 30s,
616
00:35:47.270 --> 00:35:50.223
he called it Democracity.
617
00:35:51.790 --> 00:35:53.520
So, what he was trying to do then,
618
00:35:53.520 --> 00:35:58.520
was merge together democracy and capitalism, as one.
619
00:35:59.930 --> 00:36:03.640
620
00:36:03.640 --> 00:36:05.560
which are not about the present,
621
00:36:05.560 --> 00:36:07.113
but are all about the future.
622
00:36:08.180 --> 00:36:10.000
And people love the future.
623
00:36:10.000 --> 00:36:13.520
Because the minute you start talking about the future,
624
00:36:13.520 --> 00:36:16.043
you can invent it any way you want.
625
00:36:22.960 --> 00:36:27.050
The World\'s Fair has a famous documentary,
626
00:36:27.050 --> 00:36:30.380
which is about a family in the Midwest.
627
00:36:30.380 --> 00:36:31.213
628
00:36:31.213 --> 00:36:32.046
How are you?
629
00:36:32.046 --> 00:36:33.180
630
00:36:33.180 --> 00:36:35.740
631
00:36:35.740 --> 00:36:38.170
The daughter, who lives in New York,
632
00:36:38.170 --> 00:36:41.340
is having an affair with her art teacher, who\'s a communist.
633
00:36:41.340 --> 00:36:43.611
634
00:36:43.611 --> 00:36:44.590
635
00:36:44.590 --> 00:36:45.877
636
00:36:45.877 --> 00:36:47.270
\"The Middletons Go to the Fair\",
637
00:36:47.270 --> 00:36:48.780
which takes them to the fair,
638
00:36:48.780 --> 00:36:51.500
and particularly to the Westinghouse exhibit,
639
00:36:51.500 --> 00:36:54.040
because Westinghouse Electric Company
640
00:36:54.040 --> 00:36:56.683
was the sponsor of the film.
641
00:37:03.820 --> 00:37:05.458
642
00:37:05.458 --> 00:37:06.380
What do you want to do?
643
00:37:06.380 --> 00:37:08.790
644
00:37:08.790 --> 00:37:10.354
645
00:37:10.354 --> 00:37:11.430
646
00:37:11.430 --> 00:37:13.140
Their eyes popping out of their heads.
647
00:37:13.140 --> 00:37:14.230
Drooling over the very things
648
00:37:14.230 --> 00:37:15.870
that are taking away their jobs.
649
00:37:15.870 --> 00:37:18.100
650
00:37:18.100 --> 00:37:20.150
651
00:37:20.150 --> 00:37:22.020
that are gonna be coming into the kitchen,
652
00:37:22.020 --> 00:37:24.850
and is convinced that the old way of life was nothing
653
00:37:24.850 --> 00:37:26.850
compared to what\'s gonna happen.
654
00:37:26.850 --> 00:37:28.820
655
00:37:28.820 --> 00:37:31.240
No one who hasn\'t cooked over a wood stove,
656
00:37:31.240 --> 00:37:33.150
by the light of kerosene lamp,
657
00:37:33.150 --> 00:37:35.898
can really appreciate what it all means.
658
00:37:35.898 --> 00:37:39.090
659
00:37:39.090 --> 00:37:41.320
you know, wash the dishes.
660
00:37:41.320 --> 00:37:43.010
And the good life is on its way.
661
00:37:43.010 --> 00:37:44.250
Just wait.
662
00:37:44.250 --> 00:37:45.260
663
00:37:45.260 --> 00:37:48.400
in exactly seven minutes and 58 seconds.
664
00:37:48.400 --> 00:37:50.800
In that time, Ms. Modern has washed 50 dishes
665
00:37:50.800 --> 00:37:52.700
and 40 pieces of silverware.
666
00:37:52.700 --> 00:37:54.150
As I.
667
00:37:54.150 --> 00:37:55.700
Well, it\'s all over Ms. Drudge.
668
00:37:55.700 --> 00:37:56.779
You may as well rest now.
669
00:37:59.070 --> 00:38:00.360
And so, ladies and gentlemen,
670
00:38:00.360 --> 00:38:02.373
I give you the winner, Ms. Modern.
671
00:38:04.920 --> 00:38:08.630
672
00:38:08.630 --> 00:38:12.440
the fun of the new industrial future,
673
00:38:12.440 --> 00:38:16.350
the kid abandons his anti-capitalist values
674
00:38:16.350 --> 00:38:17.733
and becomes a sort of,
675
00:38:19.374 --> 00:38:21.800
a drum major for the business system.
676
00:38:21.800 --> 00:38:23.630
677
00:38:23.630 --> 00:38:25.291
can make enough jobs, in the future,
678
00:38:25.291 --> 00:38:28.030
to take care of the young people that are coming along?
679
00:38:28.030 --> 00:38:30.670
680
00:38:30.670 --> 00:38:32.290
Industry will make so many jobs,
681
00:38:32.290 --> 00:38:34.632
there won\'t be enough people to fill \'em.
682
00:38:34.632 --> 00:38:39.632
683
00:38:41.210 --> 00:38:43.920
apart from a capitalist democracy.
684
00:39:00.400 --> 00:39:02.420
685
00:39:02.420 --> 00:39:03.960
these PR campaigns, nonetheless,
686
00:39:03.960 --> 00:39:05.563
raised a number of questions.
687
00:39:06.700 --> 00:39:08.140
Some people openly denounced
688
00:39:08.140 --> 00:39:10.253
the manipulation of minds through PR.
689
00:39:11.210 --> 00:39:14.573
An accusation sometimes pointed directly at Edward Bernays.
690
00:39:16.750 --> 00:39:20.050
691
00:39:20.050 --> 00:39:24.450
weapons of mass impression, which can slay our minds.
692
00:39:24.450 --> 00:39:27.750
The responsibility for averting such disaster
693
00:39:27.750 --> 00:39:30.030
rests squarely on the shoulders of those
694
00:39:30.030 --> 00:39:32.723
who now undertake opinion leadership.
695
00:39:33.700 --> 00:39:35.470
696
00:39:35.470 --> 00:39:38.120
is as important to our democracy
697
00:39:38.120 --> 00:39:40.500
as our other civil liberties,
698
00:39:40.500 --> 00:39:43.370
freedom of religion, press, speech.
699
00:39:43.370 --> 00:39:45.580
The usefulness of propaganda
700
00:39:45.580 --> 00:39:49.220
makes it a vital asset to the democracy.
701
00:39:49.220 --> 00:39:52.100
702
00:39:52.100 --> 00:39:54.010
at that kind of charge and taken real offense.
703
00:39:54.010 --> 00:39:55.240
Eddie Bernays liked it.
704
00:39:55.240 --> 00:39:59.300
It was something suggesting he had real power
705
00:39:59.300 --> 00:40:01.210
in reshaping the way people thought,
706
00:40:01.210 --> 00:40:03.110
and Eddie Bernays thought that wasn\'t a bad thing.
707
00:40:03.110 --> 00:40:06.330
He thought also, and he deceived himself in lots of ways,
708
00:40:06.330 --> 00:40:07.620
by thinking that what he was doing
709
00:40:07.620 --> 00:40:09.610
was generally for the pubic good.
710
00:40:09.610 --> 00:40:13.910
711
00:40:13.910 --> 00:40:18.910
and part of that competitive battle is competing propaganda,
712
00:40:19.420 --> 00:40:23.270
competing advertising, competing for market,
713
00:40:23.270 --> 00:40:24.790
in the marketplace,
714
00:40:24.790 --> 00:40:28.663
that is based on a free and open competition.
715
00:40:29.530 --> 00:40:30.900
716
00:40:30.900 --> 00:40:32.620
It\'s a paid-for competition,
717
00:40:32.620 --> 00:40:33.990
and in that paid-for competition,
718
00:40:33.990 --> 00:40:35.950
the people with the most resources, the corporations,
719
00:40:35.950 --> 00:40:38.700
sometimes government, win, in every circumstance.
720
00:40:38.700 --> 00:40:40.770
They win, because they have the most resources.
721
00:40:40.770 --> 00:40:42.620
Doesn\'t mean they win in terms of outcomes,
722
00:40:42.620 --> 00:40:45.690
but they have the most advantages going into that struggle.
723
00:40:45.690 --> 00:40:48.840
And the ordinary person wanted to make their own propaganda,
724
00:40:48.840 --> 00:40:51.800
in free competition, is systematically outgunned
725
00:40:51.800 --> 00:40:54.890
and out-paid for by the big people.
726
00:40:54.890 --> 00:40:56.443
727
00:40:56.443 --> 00:40:59.960
I--
728
00:40:59.960 --> 00:41:04.280
729
00:41:04.280 --> 00:41:08.400
and I am not a person who can solve your difficulties,
730
00:41:08.400 --> 00:41:12.513
as to which ideology you prefer or don\'t prefer.
731
00:41:23.560 --> 00:41:25.710
732
00:41:25.710 --> 00:41:29.690 line:15%
in 1941, suspended the debate on public relations.
733
00:41:29.690 --> 00:41:32.970 line:15%
In fact, there was a nationwide return to mass propaganda,
734
00:41:32.970 --> 00:41:34.790 line:15%
to support the war effort,
735
00:41:34.790 --> 00:41:36.490 line:15%
employing the exact same techniques,
736
00:41:36.490 --> 00:41:39.173 line:15%
invented by the Creel Commission, 20 years earlier.
737
00:41:40.320 --> 00:41:42.370
738
00:41:42.370 --> 00:41:45.510
on how to use public relations and propaganda,
739
00:41:45.510 --> 00:41:48.230
but he never played quite the central role
740
00:41:48.230 --> 00:41:50.280
that he did during World War I.
741
00:41:50.280 --> 00:41:53.700
In part, because public relations and propaganda
742
00:41:53.700 --> 00:41:55.330
were much better understood by then,
743
00:41:55.330 --> 00:41:58.583
and the government had its own propaganda agencies.
744
00:42:01.090 --> 00:42:03.130
745
00:42:03.130 --> 00:42:05.350
they saw the war as a wonderful PR tool,
746
00:42:05.350 --> 00:42:08.633
for relaunching their campaign on the American way of life.
747
00:42:12.150 --> 00:42:14.740
748
00:42:14.740 --> 00:42:17.580
of what we will come home to after the war.
749
00:42:17.580 --> 00:42:20.675
Sometimes it\'s in a crystal ball,
750
00:42:20.675 --> 00:42:22.620
a tool for seeing the future.
751
00:42:22.620 --> 00:42:25.810
And it\'s a future which is filled with the bounty
752
00:42:25.810 --> 00:42:30.810
and abundance and commodification of your future,
753
00:42:32.110 --> 00:42:35.270
as soon as we\'ve gotten rid of this war.
754
00:42:35.270 --> 00:42:37.473
755
00:42:37.473 --> 00:42:41.260
the business world launched an enormous offensive,
756
00:42:41.260 --> 00:42:44.518
to try to beat back the progressive elements
757
00:42:44.518 --> 00:42:45.733
of the New Deal.
758
00:42:55.380 --> 00:42:57.620
759
00:42:57.620 --> 00:43:01.240
and Edward Bernays himself, was justified by the resurfacing
760
00:43:01.240 --> 00:43:03.273
of workers\' demands after the war.
761
00:43:05.170 --> 00:43:08.760
In 1945 and 46, almost 10 million workers
762
00:43:08.760 --> 00:43:09.880
took to the streets,
763
00:43:09.880 --> 00:43:11.973
paralyzing a large part of the country.
764
00:43:14.270 --> 00:43:17.620
In reaction, leading industrialists used their influence,
765
00:43:17.620 --> 00:43:19.870
to have the new president, Harry Truman,
766
00:43:19.870 --> 00:43:22.217
push through a law, restricting the powers of the unions
767
00:43:22.217 --> 00:43:23.593
and the right to strike.
768
00:43:24.450 --> 00:43:27.090
They then called on PR agencies to paint protestors
769
00:43:27.090 --> 00:43:30.353
as citizens who are against true American values.
770
00:43:33.260 --> 00:43:36.640
771
00:43:36.640 --> 00:43:39.720
it\'s pretty well studied, incidentally, of the,
772
00:43:39.720 --> 00:43:43.820
to try to take over schools, universities,
773
00:43:43.820 --> 00:43:47.630
sports leagues, churches, factories,
774
00:43:47.630 --> 00:43:51.190
with forced sessions to teach people
775
00:43:51.190 --> 00:43:55.163
what was called it, Americanism, harmony,
776
00:43:56.770 --> 00:43:58.190
get the bad guys out.
777
00:43:58.190 --> 00:44:02.251
Anti-Communism was, of course, used for this purpose.
778
00:44:02.251 --> 00:44:03.864
779
00:44:03.864 --> 00:44:05.987
Get your latest edition here!
780
00:44:09.904 --> 00:44:13.390
781
00:44:13.390 --> 00:44:16.010
What are the facts behind the faces?
782
00:44:16.010 --> 00:44:20.230
783
00:44:20.230 --> 00:44:23.540
was afraid of nuclear war.
784
00:44:23.540 --> 00:44:26.850
I remember getting under the desk in school.
785
00:44:26.850 --> 00:44:28.540
We had to do that.
786
00:44:28.540 --> 00:44:29.990
787
00:44:29.990 --> 00:44:31.090
any time of the year.
788
00:44:31.090 --> 00:44:33.580
Day or night, he is ready for it.
789
00:44:33.580 --> 00:44:35.310
Duck and cover!
790
00:44:35.310 --> 00:44:36.380
791
00:44:36.380 --> 00:44:38.730
was overcome with acute paranoia.
792
00:44:38.730 --> 00:44:39.630
793
00:44:39.630 --> 00:44:40.630
794
00:44:40.630 --> 00:44:42.360
of the Russians invading the country
795
00:44:42.360 --> 00:44:43.963
or sparking a nuclear war.
796
00:44:45.619 --> 00:44:46.930
797
00:44:50.420 --> 00:44:53.060
798
00:44:53.060 --> 00:44:54.850
was used directly by PR experts,
799
00:44:54.850 --> 00:44:57.103
to defend strictly private interests.
800
00:45:02.810 --> 00:45:06.210
In the early 1950s, it was a small, peaceful country,
801
00:45:06.210 --> 00:45:07.800
which would embody, on it\'s own,
802
00:45:07.800 --> 00:45:10.513
the Communist enemy that needed to be shot down.
803
00:45:11.530 --> 00:45:14.970
On March 15th, 1951, Jacobo Arbenz
804
00:45:14.970 --> 00:45:17.633
was democratically elected President of Guatemala.
805
00:45:18.980 --> 00:45:20.260
One of his first decisions,
806
00:45:20.260 --> 00:45:22.990
was to nationalize and return for compensation,
807
00:45:22.990 --> 00:45:24.880
the country\'s uncultivated land,
808
00:45:24.880 --> 00:45:26.913
and to redistribute it to poor peasants.
809
00:45:28.470 --> 00:45:31.240
But 3/4 of this land belonged to one of the largest
810
00:45:31.240 --> 00:45:33.730
multi-nationals in the United States,
811
00:45:33.730 --> 00:45:34.980
the United Fruit Company.
812
00:45:41.669 --> 00:45:45.129
♪ I\'m Chiquita Banana and I\'ve come to say ♪
813
00:45:45.129 --> 00:45:47.865
♪ Bananas have to ripen in a certain way ♪
814
00:45:47.865 --> 00:45:49.182
♪ And when they\'re flecked with brown ♪
815
00:45:49.182 --> 00:45:51.092
♪ And have a golden hue ♪
816
00:45:51.092 --> 00:45:52.294
♪ Bananas taste the best ♪
817
00:45:52.294 --> 00:45:55.570
♪ And are the best for you ♪
818
00:45:55.570 --> 00:45:57.360
819
00:45:57.360 --> 00:45:59.440
president Arbenz\'s agrarian reform
820
00:45:59.440 --> 00:46:01.703
posed a serious threat to its interests.
821
00:46:03.160 --> 00:46:05.940
A media-based counterattack was deemed necessary
822
00:46:05.940 --> 00:46:08.740
and was entrusted to one of the company\'s main advisors,
823
00:46:08.740 --> 00:46:09.743
Edward Bernays.
824
00:46:11.800 --> 00:46:15.060
825
00:46:15.060 --> 00:46:17.780
managed to convince much of America
826
00:46:17.780 --> 00:46:20.220
and a big enough part of Guatemalans,
827
00:46:20.220 --> 00:46:23.580
that the leftest government, which was coming in
828
00:46:23.580 --> 00:46:27.480
and trying to reform archaic economic systems there,
829
00:46:27.480 --> 00:46:29.510
that that was a beachhead for the Soviet Union.
830
00:46:29.510 --> 00:46:30.930
And what Eddie Bernays did,
831
00:46:30.930 --> 00:46:34.140
was waged a campaign of psychological warfare,
832
00:46:34.140 --> 00:46:37.560
that was even more profound and much more effective,
833
00:46:37.560 --> 00:46:40.370
then the one he had waged on behalf of the U.S. government
834
00:46:40.370 --> 00:46:41.470
during World War I.
835
00:46:45.030 --> 00:46:45.863
836
00:46:45.863 --> 00:46:47.610
would define his propaganda campaign,
837
00:46:47.610 --> 00:46:52.250
with a term borrowed from World War I, the media blitz.
838
00:46:52.250 --> 00:46:54.070
839
00:46:54.070 --> 00:46:56.910
that you\'re going to be on the phone, constantly,
840
00:46:56.910 --> 00:47:00.910
with different reporters, who are influential,
841
00:47:00.910 --> 00:47:05.910
and you\'re providing copy to them on a very regular basis.
842
00:47:07.050 --> 00:47:12.050
By creating his own news bureau and wire service,
843
00:47:12.350 --> 00:47:14.163
just to talk about Guatemala.
844
00:47:15.970 --> 00:47:16.980
845
00:47:16.980 --> 00:47:18.100
set up by Edward Bernays,
846
00:47:18.100 --> 00:47:20.860
was officially considered to be independent,
847
00:47:20.860 --> 00:47:24.333
it was, in reality, financed by the United Fruit Company.
848
00:47:26.610 --> 00:47:29.180
It spoonfed the press, the major part of its information,
849
00:47:29.180 --> 00:47:31.713
on the supposed Communist leanings of Guatemala.
850
00:47:32.940 --> 00:47:35.760
Edward Bernays organized free trips for reporters,
851
00:47:35.760 --> 00:47:36.883
to visit the country.
852
00:47:40.480 --> 00:47:44.423
853
00:47:48.690 --> 00:47:50.740
854
00:47:50.740 --> 00:47:55.540
told me, decades later, that they realized after the fact,
855
00:47:55.540 --> 00:47:57.920
unfortunately, most of them, not at the time,
856
00:47:57.920 --> 00:47:59.990
that they were being used and manipulated
857
00:47:59.990 --> 00:48:02.860
by Eddie Bernays on behalf of the United Fruit Company,
858
00:48:02.860 --> 00:48:06.000
and none of that was apparent to them at the time.
859
00:48:06.000 --> 00:48:07.380
860
00:48:07.380 --> 00:48:09.880
a Communist-dominated regime.
861
00:48:09.880 --> 00:48:12.930
Following a reign of terror, manipulated by such Communists
862
00:48:12.930 --> 00:48:17.040
as the Argentinian, Che Guevara, who later goes to Cuba,
863
00:48:17.040 --> 00:48:19.700
the common people of this tiny nation rise up.
864
00:48:19.700 --> 00:48:21.910
865
00:48:21.910 --> 00:48:26.240
made that part of this fear of the Soviets
866
00:48:26.240 --> 00:48:29.080
and fear of encroaching Communism,
867
00:48:29.080 --> 00:48:31.570
in a way that I don\'t think it really was,
868
00:48:31.570 --> 00:48:33.760
and in a way that helped convince the U.S. government
869
00:48:33.760 --> 00:48:36.503
that it had to step in and do something in Guatemala.
870
00:48:42.790 --> 00:48:45.350
871
00:48:45.350 --> 00:48:46.930
president Arbenz was overthrown
872
00:48:46.930 --> 00:48:49.460
by the rebel forces of Castillo Armas,
873
00:48:49.460 --> 00:48:52.060
with the decisive backing of the CIA.
874
00:48:52.060 --> 00:48:54.770
His arrival in power marked the beginning of a civil war,
875
00:48:54.770 --> 00:48:56.520
which would last 40 years,
876
00:48:56.520 --> 00:48:59.593
and leave up to 200,000 people dead or missing.
877
00:49:00.800 --> 00:49:02.890
878
00:49:02.890 --> 00:49:05.110
879
00:49:05.110 --> 00:49:06.648
lasted three years.
880
00:49:11.524 --> 00:49:15.310
881
00:49:15.310 --> 00:49:18.530
of the duly elected leftest government.
882
00:49:18.530 --> 00:49:19.500
And this was dangerous,
883
00:49:19.500 --> 00:49:22.210
not because of what it did only in Guatemala,
884
00:49:22.210 --> 00:49:24.640
but it set a pattern for the United States.
885
00:49:24.640 --> 00:49:26.860
Convincing us that it was okay
886
00:49:26.860 --> 00:49:29.460
and that we could actually achieve success,
887
00:49:29.460 --> 00:49:32.450
in a way that helped dictate American policy,
888
00:49:32.450 --> 00:49:34.300
failed policy, in Cuba,
889
00:49:34.300 --> 00:49:35.770
where we thought we could do the same thing
890
00:49:35.770 --> 00:49:39.270
to the Castro regime, and years later in Vietnam,
891
00:49:39.270 --> 00:49:41.220
where we thought we could do the same thing,
892
00:49:41.220 --> 00:49:44.460
in imposing a government that was friendly to us,
893
00:49:44.460 --> 00:49:45.510
in the South Vietnam.
894
00:49:52.530 --> 00:49:55.090
895
00:49:55.090 --> 00:49:58.400
Edward Bernays published \"Engineering of Consent\",
896
00:49:58.400 --> 00:50:01.410
a theoretical and practical guide to public relations,
897
00:50:01.410 --> 00:50:02.913
aimed at the new generation.
898
00:50:06.710 --> 00:50:09.250
In 40 years, Edward Bernays succeeded
899
00:50:09.250 --> 00:50:12.890
in turning a concept of people governance into a reality,
900
00:50:12.890 --> 00:50:15.853
firmly routed in all spheres of society.
901
00:50:20.240 --> 00:50:23.630
In 1990, five years before his death,
902
00:50:23.630 --> 00:50:26.000
Life Magazine named Edward Bernays
903
00:50:26.000 --> 00:50:28.790
as one of the most influential Americans
904
00:50:28.790 --> 00:50:30.100
of the 20th century.
905
00:50:30.100 --> 00:50:31.343
906
00:50:33.580 --> 00:50:37.043
907
00:50:38.450 --> 00:50:39.643
Maybe he did.
908
00:50:40.870 --> 00:50:45.870
But truth is made up of a whole lot of different elements,
909
00:50:49.180 --> 00:50:53.253
and you can\'t separate one out.
910
00:50:54.820 --> 00:50:59.820
911
00:51:01.530 --> 00:51:05.983
as Bernays put it, as being an engineer of consent,
912
00:51:07.970 --> 00:51:11.860
then democracy becomes a sham.
913
00:51:11.860 --> 00:51:13.480
914
00:51:13.480 --> 00:51:16.270
and winning hearts and minds, it\'s about changing society.
915
00:51:16.270 --> 00:51:19.050
And that\'s what propaganda was about, originally,
916
00:51:19.050 --> 00:51:20.590
and that\'s what public relations is about now.
917
00:51:20.590 --> 00:51:22.580
It\'s about enforcing a particular set
918
00:51:22.580 --> 00:51:25.150
of agendas and interests, by those who use it.
919
00:51:25.150 --> 00:51:27.670
And those who use it, overwhelmingly,
920
00:51:27.670 --> 00:51:29.250
are powerful interests in society.
921
00:51:29.250 --> 00:51:32.200
Big business, predominantly, but also government.
922
00:51:32.200 --> 00:51:34.323
923
00:51:35.430 --> 00:51:37.183
are we working for a client?
924
00:51:38.570 --> 00:51:41.533
And if that client is not the people,
925
00:51:42.710 --> 00:51:46.350
the population at large, then we have a problem,
926
00:51:46.350 --> 00:51:49.910
because that means that private interests,
927
00:51:49.910 --> 00:51:54.910
are small numbers of people, are shaping public fictions,
928
00:51:56.240 --> 00:51:59.460
and investing them with a sense of private urgency,
929
00:51:59.460 --> 00:52:04.460
which allows them to fuck with our heads.
