Marketing Strategies by Edward Bernays, Father of Public Relations

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His handling of public opinion was such that he even managed to impose it as a discipline. In 1928 he wrote the book Propaganda, where he defined the boundaries of this specialty. After the war, the term “propaganda” acquired a negative connotation since it was used by the Nazis as a political tool. So Bernays applied the golden rule of public relations, which was made famous by the show Mad Men: “if you don’t like what is being said, change the conversation.” Bernays replaced the term “propaganda” for “ india mobile database public relations” and the rest is history. What follows is a brief tour of some of this man’s most important campaigns.

Lucky Strikes Back
During the twenties, the American Tobacco Corporation sought to reach a larger audience of smokers. George Washington Hill, its president, was at the time in charge of the Lucky Strike brand. Hill set out to appeal to a hitherto untapped demographic: women. “We are losing half our market because men have invoked a taboo on women smoking in public,” he argued.

Smoke your shadow
In 1929, Washington Hill hired Edward Bernays to convince women to smoke cigarettes. Bernays worked with his uncle’s theories in mind. Since smoking was considered an appetite suppressant, and thinness was in fashion, Bernays designed a campaign that would appeal to women’s unconscious fear of gaining weight. In the ads, slim, pretty women were haunted by the shadow of an obese future version. The tagline read: “When tempted, grab a Lucky instead. Avoid the shadow of the future.”

edward bernays lucky strike
Torches of Liberty
Edward Bernays’ bold marketing campaign went even further. To effectively break the taboo on smoking in public, Bernays decided to investigate what cigarettes meant to women. After consulting a local psychoanalyst, he came to the conclusion that cigarettes were a symbol of masculine power (according to the psychoanalyst he consulted, they literally represented “the phallus”) and that he could then get women to smoke cigarettes if he framed it as a way to challenge male power. To this end, Bernays organized a demonstration at the 1929 Easter parade, where famous women held up their “torches of liberty”: Lucky Strike cigarettes. The brand managed to become a symbol of gender equality in the United States during those years.