“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society.”
Edward Bernays was one of the first people to start up in public relations, public relations as defined by the oxford dictionary is “the business of giving the public information about a particular organization or person in order to create a good impression”, essentially it is the role of people in public relations to shape the truth into something that the public will find appealing. With his uncle being Sigmund Freud, it makes logical sense the Bernays would have been inspired by his study of the unconscious mind, his job was to shape public opinion through manipulation and to do this with the public being conscious of it would be impossible.
“Bernays orchestrated a scenario in which a group of debutant women would be seen at an extremely publicized event, lighting up cigarettes, and dubbing them, “Torches of Freedom.” (Curtis, 2002). Cigarette sales rose as a result.”, architecting situations to deceive a marginalised group into buying a product that provides the illusion of freedom is unethical. We still see these issues today with companies profiteering off the back of pride month and other social justice causes.
In my creative sound work I aim to highlight the deceptiveness of large companies advertising campaigns by creating a satirical radio advert block focusing on the different ways in which these companies take advantage of the masses and the ways in which they have broken the concept of individualism.
E. Bernays, Propaganda, 1928
L.Anderson, Modern Day Dystopia, 2014