Something must be in the air, but some commentators -- Glenn Beck among them -- have focused attention on Edward Bernays, held to be the father of the public relations industry, if not modern adversing in general. A month back the Economist ran an article on Bernays and one of his predescessors, Ivy Lee, who figured out how to persuade the public to think one way about a dominant issue. This is handy if you are a vested interest that needs to deal with a crisis:
Lee observed that the rise of national newspaper chains and syndicated journalism in America since the 1880s, combined with the extension of the franchise, had profoundly changed society. Now, for the first time, there was something that could accurately be called “public opinion”, a shared consciousness and conversation across the country—and it was to be feared. Lee noted how the emerging mass media were acting as the conduit for the anti-capitalist message of Progressivism, the liberalising reform movement that peaked in America in the early 20th century. He realised not only that it was essential for businesses to counter this message, but that the same conduit could be used to spread pro-business sentiment.
His idea, blindingly obvious now but a novelty then, was to send newsdesks a stream of statements putting the mining bosses’ case and rebutting allegations against them. These, as well as the statements he put out the same year on behalf of a railway following a train crash, are now sometimes described (with a bit of spin) as the first press releases. . . The sentence regarding public opinion is especially important. I want my 2301s especially to read through this since we will be digging into how interest grousp anbd parties form and communicate, and of course, public opinion in general, soon enough.
To give you an idea of how effective they can be, here's a classic scene from Mad Men.
You might want to think about this and peruse through some presidential campaign ads.
