Imagine you were in America during the 1920s, a time when it was still taboo for women to smoke in public.

How could one encourage an entire nation of women to start buying and smoking cigarettes regularly? Edward Bernays, the father of the Public Relations industry, knew just what to do.
Bernays hired a group of young female models to march in a New York City parade and tipped off the press, telling them that a few women’s rights advocates would be lighting ‘Torches of Freedom‘ in protest.

The models lit up Lucky Strike cigarettes and strolled down the streets. Journalists took pictures eagerly and they were published in the front page of newspapers.

This legendary stunt and the clever association of ‘freedom’ (a concept) with cigarettes made women desire to pick up smoking. As irrational as it is, smoking became an act of empowerment for women and a gesture of protest for absolute equality with men. Sales went up for the American Tobacco Company.

Psychology and advertising became gradually intertwined in the early 20th century as Bernays and others applied Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theories of the unconscious in the realm of business, politics and public relations.

These topics are covered in The Century of the Self, a brilliant 2002 documentary by filmmaker Adam Curtis. This four part documentary examines how governments, politicians and businesses have used Freud’s theories to ‘try to control the dangerous crowd in a age of mass democracy“.

To many in both politics and business, the triumph of the self is the ultimate expression of democracy, where power has finally moved to the people. Certainly the people may feel they are in charge, but are they really?
The Century of the Self tells the untold and sometimes controversial story of the growth of the mass-consumer society in Britain and the United States. How was the all-consuming self created, by whom, and in whose interests?
By introducing a technique to probe the unconscious mind, Freud provided useful tools for understanding the secret desires of the masses. Unwittingly, his work served as the precursor to a world full of political spin doctors, marketing moguls, and society’s belief that the pursuit of satisfaction and happiness is man’s ultimate goal.

I watched the series a while ago and it was very interesting to me at that time. I recently came across it on Google Video and re-watched the first episode, which talks about Edward Bernays and the rise of PR industry.

This is a fascinating documentary and if you have some time this weekend, be sure to check it out. You’ll come to understand how important it is to sell ideas and associations on top of every product or service you provide.

Sometimes its not all about your product or service’s actual features but rather the strategic marketing of ideas which resonate with your target audience. Watch all four parts of The Century of the Self at this Google Video link or download the entire series from The Internet Archive.