Big Pictures at UAA

Chapter 4: The Psychology of Public Relations

"...hoping that I could gain insight into the way Bernays approached his practical work, I asked him to describe how he would plan and attend to a specific public relations assignment.

First of all, Bernays instructed, one must rid one's mind of the conventional "press agent" image. "We've [speaking of himself] had no direct contact with the mass media for about fifty years."

Rather, he continued, the job of a public relations counsel is to instruct a client on how to take actions which "just interrupt...the continuity of life in some way to bring about the [media] response."

"How would you do that?" I asked."

"Public relations is the attempt, by information, persuasion, and adjustment, to engineer public support for an activity, cause, movement, or institution" (Bernays, 1955, p. 3)

The Century of the Self

"The Century of the Self tells the story of the relationship between Sigmund Freud and his American nephew, Edward Bernays. Bernays was one of the main architects of the modern techniques of mass-consumer persuasion, using every trick in the book, from celebrity endorsement and outrageous PR stunts, to eroticising the motorcar.

“In writing this book I have tried to set down the broad principles that govern the new profession of public relations counsel. These principles I have substantiated by the findings of psychologists, sociologists, and newspapermen.”

Edward Bernays, 1923

"What we’re dealing with really is the concept that people will believe me more if you call me doctor."

Harold Burson, 2011