How your uncertainty is bought and sold

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

In the 1920s, women did not smoke, and if they did, they were severely condemned for it. Smoking was taboo. People believed that smoking, as well as getting higher education or being elected to Congress, was a purely male prerogative.

This presented a problem for the tobacco companies. It was unprofitable for them that half of the population did not smoke cigarettes for one reason or another. George Washington Hill, president of the American Tobacco Company, said, "A gold mine runs right in front of our noses." Tobacco companies have tried repeatedly to convince women to start smoking cigarettes, but to no avail. The cultural bias against smoking was much stronger.

In 1928, the American Tobacco Company recruited Edward Bernays, a young, energetic marketer with a bunch of crazy ideas.

Bernays' marketing tactics stood out from the crowd. At the beginning of the twentieth century, marketing was seen as a means of presenting the real benefits of a product in the simplest and most concise form. At that time, it was believed that people purchased goods based on the information provided about them. To sell, for example, his cheese, the manufacturer had to convince the buyer that his product was the best through facts. It was believed that people made purchases based on rational decisions.

But Bernays was of a different opinion. He didn’t believe that people made rational decisions in most cases. Bernays believed that people were fundamentally unreasonable, so it was necessary to influence them on an emotional and unconscious level.

Tobacco companies focused on convincing women to buy and smoke cigarettes, which Bernays saw as an emotional and cultural issue. To get women to smoke, Bernays said, it was necessary to shift the balance, making smoking a positive emotional experience and changing its cultural perception.

To achieve his goal, Bernays recruited a group of women to participate in the Easter Parade in New York. In those days, parades were considered significant public events.

Bernays wanted the women to stop at the right moment and light their cigarettes at the same time. He also hired photographers who took flattering photographs of the ladies with cigarettes in their hands. All pictures were submitted to the largest national publications. Bernays later said in an interview with reporters that these women light not just cigarettes, but "torches of freedom", demonstrating self-sufficiency and their ability to defend their own independence.

It was all a lie, of course. But Bernays decided to present it as a political protest, because he knew that his idea would certainly evoke corresponding emotions in women across the country. Ten years ago, feminists defended their right to vote. Now women increasingly worked outside the home and gradually became an integral part of the economic life of the United States. They asserted themselves with short haircuts and bright clothes. At the time, women considered themselves the first generation to be independent of men. If Bernays were able to convey to the women liberation movement participants that "smoking = freedom", tobacco sales would double, and he would become a rich man. And his plan worked. The women began to smoke and get lung cancer, just like their husbands.

Meanwhile, Bernays continued to carry out similar cultural upheavals on a regular basis throughout the 1920s, 30s and 40s. He completely revolutionized the marketing industry and invented the field of public relations that takes shape in the process. Paying celebrities to use your product? It was Bernays' idea. Coming up with news articles that contain hidden advertisements for a product? Also his idea. Staging controversial public events as a means of attracting attention? Also Bernays' idea. Almost every form of marketing or publicity that exists today began with Bernays.

But the most surprising fact from Bernays' biography is that he was the nephew of Sigmund Freud.

Freud was one of the first to argue that most human decisions are predominantly unconscious and irrational. He was the only one who realized that human insecurity leads to excesses and overcompensation. He realized that humans are inherently animals that are easy to manipulate, especially in groups.

Bernays simply applied his uncle's ideas to sell groceries and eventually became a wealthy man.

Thanks to Freud, Bernays realized that influencing people's insecurity, their deepest sense of inferiority, can make them buy whatever you say.

This form of marketing has become the foundation of all future advertising. Men buy big cars because they are associated with strength and reliability. Makeup is marketed as a way that women can become more attractive. Beer is associated with a fun pastime.

Women's magazines contain nothing but 150 pages of retouched photographs of beautiful women, interspersed with beauty product advertisements that make them profit. Beer commercials show noisy parties with friends, girls, boobs, sports cars, Las Vegas, friends, more girls, more boobs, more beer - girls, girls, girls, parties, dances, cars, friends, girls … Want it the same ? Drink Budweiser beer.

This is all modern marketing. In order to start a business, many people think that it is necessary to find the "pain points" of people, and then subtly make them feel worse. Then you need to convey to them that your product will improve their condition. The bottom line was to tell people that they would be lonely forever, because something was wrong with them, and then offer to buy a book with tips, a subscription to a fitness club, a red car, new cosmetics … This would make an ordinary person disgusting …

In our culture, marketing is often a message of information. The vast majority of the information we receive is some form of marketing. Therefore, if marketing is always trying to make us feel shitty and buy this or that "lightening" product, then we are essentially in a culture designed to make us feel bad, and we will always want to overcompensate in some way.

One thing I've noticed over the years is that most people don't really have any problems. They just cling to bizarre and unrealistic demands on themselves. And this happens all the time. All commercials offering us consumer products first try to scare, depress, and only then they offer their product, which magically turns out to be a solution to all problems that did not exist even before the start of this commercial.

By the way, Bernays was aware of all this. However, his political views smacked of fascism. He considered it inevitable that the strong exploited the weak through the media and propaganda. He called it "invisible management." In his opinion, the masses were stupid and deserved everything that smart people did to them.

Our society has come to a very interesting moment in history. In theory, capitalism works by allocating resources to meet the needs and requirements of each person in the most efficient way.

And, perhaps, capitalism is the only effective means of satisfying such physical needs of the population as food, housing, clothing, and so on. However, the capitalist economy tends to feed people's insecurities, vices and fears, to hit the most vulnerable spots and constantly remind them of their shortcomings and failures. It becomes profitable to set new and unrealistic standards, to create a culture of comparison and inferiority, because people who constantly feel inferior are the best consumers.

People only buy what they think will solve the problem. Therefore, if you want to sell more products than there are problems, then you must make people believe that there are problems where they simply do not exist.

I am by no means attacking capitalism or marketing. I do not even believe in the existence of some kind of conspiracy to keep the "herd" in check. I think that the system simply creates certain incentives that shape the media, and the media, in turn, define an insensitive and shallow culture.

I like to think of this as the “least worst” solution to organizing human civilization. Unbridled capitalism simply brings with it a certain cultural baggage that we must adapt to. In most cases, marketing deliberately throws insecurity at us in order for companies to make more profit.

Some might argue that this kind of thing should be regulated and monitored by the government. Possibly, but hardly a good long-term solution.

The only real long-term solution is to develop enough self-awareness to understand when the media is trying to take advantage of our weaknesses and vulnerabilities and make informed decisions. The success of free markets has burdened us with responsibility for our freedom of choice, and it is much more difficult than we think.

See also the cycle of films:

The Century of the Self

The documentary Age of Selfishness is a four-part documentary that describes how large corporations and politicians used Freudian and post-Freudian ideas about human nature to manipulate society and social values in the 20th century. Particular attention was paid to the influence of Edward Bernays, "the father of public relations" and Freud's nephew, on American culture, business and politics. It is a well-crafted documentary with an interestingly constructed narrative.