Key Note

The Great Misleader explains how Edward L. Bernays — the most famous man you’ve never heard of — and his uncle Sigmund Freud irreversibly changed our culture, our democracy, and our lives.

About

Life  magazine included Bernays among America’s 100 most influential people of the twentieth century. He’s the man who tricked women into smoking cigarettes, and made generations of Americans think that bacon and eggs was a healthy breakfast. Yet outside of public relations, Bernays’ life and work are almost totally unknown — a silent tribute to his skill as a master propagandist.

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His success set the stage for the communication maelstrom that bombards us today. The Great Misleader digs into the myths and carefully orchestrated history Bernays crafted to perpetuate his legacy as the father of public relations. It is a cautionary tale of a man who used psychology and propaganda to forge an advertising consumer culture from human desires, hidden motivations, and emotional appeals.

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The propaganda pioneered by Bernays, who believed that the hapless human herd required intelligent guidance from above, came of age in the twentieth century. Now refined by his heirs in the public relations industry, his work is defining the twenty-first century.

 

Current Relevance

 

Bernays is relevant today because his work explains how a culture based on need was replaced by a culture of desire. We are drowning in social media, infotainment, and reams of spin. We live at a time when rational thought is often overrun by emotional diatribe and intelligent debate has largely been replaced by irresponsible rhetoric. Bread and circus is replacing civic duty. 

 

The Great Misleader uses the election of Donald Trump as an example of how Bernays’ ideas are applied today. One of the first to understand that you can sell democracy and elected leaders like any other consumer good, Bernays left an indelible mark on modern democracy.

 

Bernays invented the front group and pioneered many PR strategies and tactics we see at work today. Other areas of particular relevance can be seen in the contents below.

 

Contents

• Early Years

• Freud

• Psychoanalysis

• Propaganda

• Public Relations

• Strategic Formula

 

• Rhetoric

• Symbols

• Invisibility

• Fake News

• Ethics and Philanthropy 

• Persons of Interest

 

• On Wall Street

• On Madison Avenue

• Health Care

• Voice of the People

• National Security

• Bernays-Freud Genogram