The Century of the Self - Part 1: "Happiness Machines"

a very good bbc documentary based on Bernays work is "The Century of the Self": The Century of the Self - Part 1: "Happiness Machines" ▶ this video TL;DR: The story of the relationship between Sigmund Freud and his American nephew, Edward Bernays. Bernays invented the public relations profession in the 1920s and was the first person to take Freud's ideas to manipulate the masses. He showed American corporations how they could make people want things they didn't need by systematically linking mass-produced goods to their unconscious desires. Bernays was one of the main architects of the modern techniques of mass-consumer persuasion, using every trick in the book, from celebrity endorsement and outrageous PR stunts, to eroticising the motorcar. His most notorious coup was breaking the taboo on women smoking by persuading them that cigarettes were a symbol of independence and freedom. But Bernays was convinced that this was more than just a way of selling consumer goods. It was a new political idea of how to control the masses. By satisfying the inner irrational desires that his uncle had identified, people could be made happy and thus docile. It was the start of the all-consuming self which has come to dominate today's world. --- The Century of the Self - Part 2: "The Engineering of Consent" [link] TL;DR: This episode explores how those in power in post-war America used Freud's ideas about the unconscious mind to try and control the masses. Politicians and planners came to believe F

in “Disinformation for hire: how a new breed of PR firms is selling lies online” · View on HN

There is the obvious plug to the Century of Self documentary, if someone hasn't seen it yet but is interested in the subject of "creating needs and wants": ▶ this video or [link] The documentary relates "The story of the relationship between Sigmund Freud and his American nephew, Edward Bernays. Bernays invented the public relations profession in the 1920s and was the first person to take Freud's ideas to manipulate the masses. He showed American corporations how they could make people want things they didn't need by systematically linking mass-produced goods to their unconscious desires."

in “Researchers find inverse correlation between advertising and life satisfaction” · View on HN

Adam Curtis has a good documentary about Bernays influence in the PR industry.It's a really good watch ▶ this video

in “Still Manufacturing Consent: An Interview with Noam Chomsky” · View on HN

I also recommend Adam Curtis’s four part documentary “The Century of the Self”, the first episode of which is here: ▶ this video The first episode deals exclusively with Bernays, and the following three episodes follow a political narrative of impact. I believe Curtis’s “Hypernormalisation” would be more salient to the narrative here, which discusses the funding of misinformation as an alternative to traditional authoritarian power structures like censorship: [link]

in “We Never Paid for Journalism” · View on HN

Folks in this thread may find this interesting, a 4 part documentary on Edward Bernays and the history of advertising and PR as we know it today. ▶ this video From the video description - "The story of the relationship between Sigmund Freud and his American nephew, Edward Bernays. Bernays invented the public relations profession in the 1920s and was the first person to take Freud's ideas to manipulate the masses. He showed American corporations how they could make people want things they didn't need by systematically linking mass-produced goods to their unconscious desires. Bernays was one of the main architects of the modern techniques of mass-consumer persuasion, using every trick in the book, from celebrity endorsement and outrageous PR stunts, to eroticising the motorcar. His most notorious coup was breaking the taboo on women smoking by persuading them that cigarettes were a symbol of independence and freedom. But Bernays was convinced that this was more than just a way of selling consumer goods. It was a new political idea of how to control the masses. By satisfying the inner irrational desires that his uncle had identified, people could be made happy and thus docile. It was the start of the all-consuming self which has come to dominate today's world."

in “Advertising as a source of dissatisfaction: cross-national evidence” · View on HN

Of course, man. I grew up with the Apple ][ and C64 and we all saw a future where small businesses and creative people would make zany, informative, cute newsletters to advertise their wares. Our parents and teachers prepared us for a world mostly like the one that existed in 1980, but some of the icky parts like bookkeeping were ameliorated by the 6502. We went online a little bit, but mostly to goof around, trade some software and maybe sometimes discuss and flame, but it was always a tiny part of life, about the footprint on our time as the card game UNO. An interesting diversion, but certainly not a daily activity, much less a dependency . Of course, older now, we realize there was much more brewing behind the scenes: Corporations had been leveraging Freud's psychological principles to make us rabid consumers. Cold War paranoia created an arms race. American military hegemony had been cruising to a head. We plugged on, amused we had internet in college, but still found time to play music, party, ride bikes, etc. Suddenly around 2000, networking fused the military and commercial nature of American life into the portable mega-mall of cookies. But with all this communications technology, why only use it when sitting at our Pentium II's? Let's get everyone carrying cell phones -> surveillance capitalism. It's starting to all come together for me as I re-watch The Century of Self: ▶ this video What to do? Opinions vary. Many people will argue whether we can legislate our way out of

in “DarkPulsar” · View on HN

I would recommend the documentary [The Century of the Self]( ▶ this video ) about advertising as propoganda, in which Edwards Bernays plays a central role.

in “Taming the Lizard Brain” · View on HN

Advertising is so integrated into the American way of life, I don't know if that will ever happen. The powers-that-be won't give up their toys. This one guy single-handedly did more by running ads than anyone else until probably Google, then Facebook. [link] > His best-known campaigns include a 1929 effort to promote female smoking by branding cigarettes as feminist "Torches of Freedom", and his work for the United Fruit Company in the 1950s, connected with the CIA-orchestrated overthrow of the democratically elected Guatemalan government in 1954. Critics argue that his involvement in Guatemala facilitated US imperialism and contributed to decades of civil unrest and repression, raising ethical concerns about his role in undermining democratic governance. > He worked for dozens of major American corporations, including Procter & Gamble and General Electric, and for government agencies, politicians, and nonprofit organizations. His uncle was psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. [link] > The Century of the Self is a 2002 British television documentary series by filmmaker Adam Curtis. It focuses on the work of psychoanalysts Sigmund Freud and Anna Freud, and PR consultant Edward Bernays. In episode one, Curtis says, "This series is about how those in power have used Freud's theories to try and control the dangerous crowd in an age of mass democracy." ▶ this video

in “Bypassing Google's big anti-adblock update” · View on HN

Corporations, just like governments, engage in pervasive propaganda, from impressionable school years all the way to adulthood. Edward Burnays said propaganda got a bad name after WW1, so they renamed it to "PR". It's how corporations got women to smoke, too: [link] How they control the crowd, featuring Edward Burnays and his uncle Freud (whose theories became famous ironically because of his nephew): ▶ this video How the corporate world market to kids: [link] They marketed it to Black youth: [link] They marketed it to teen girls: [link] Sometimes the mask comes off and they do it too openly: [link] The for-profit model of news corporations and social networks has led more and more adults to become perpetually angry and tribal politically: [link] There is even a term for what they resort to in order to please shareholders: surveillance capitalism: [link] I was at the event in NYC when Sheryl Sandberg unveiled her book, "Lean In": [link] Make no mistake. YCombinator and shareholder capitalism leads to this inevitably. Corporations have to please shareholders forever. And there is more and more push for inclusivity and part of that means adapting people from traditional roles (e.g. women homemakers) into types of work that benefit the market. As both sexes flooded the labor pool, wages got depressed, and marriage declined. People are distracted into being e.g. gender warriors (Red Pill vs Feminism) rather than realizing they are all being exploited by a for-profit capitalist system

in “Hunter-gatherer childcare suggests new key to mother and child well-being” · View on HN

The war on democracy is not new, and scant little being done on the defensive side. Some historical background: ▶ this video

in “Cognitive Warfare Project” · View on HN

Sure I agree there are people who do that as well. That reminds me of the propaganda movement from Edward Bernays [0] how he profited the industry by convincing people that they need to buy material things (for example, new fashionable clothes) to express their individuality. [0] ▶ this video

in “Let’s avoid talk of ‘chemical imbalance’: it’s people in distress” · View on HN

> How has the web been tainted with ads? * [link] * [link] * ▶ this video * [link] * [link] * [link] * [link] The worlds largest advertising company is well known for abusing its position to push technological features and standards that benefit it-even if nobody else does-suppress and hinder competitors and aggressively and continuously trying to erode the open web. Next up, Facebook is notorious for similarly attempting to subvert and erode the open web, whilst simultaneously invading your privacy and using you as psychological lab-rats.

in “PWA Store” · View on HN

Advertisement is literally as old as civilization. Modern advertising is as old as Edward Bernays and the 1920s - [link] and ▶ this video [The Century of the Self - Part 1: "Happiness Machines" documentary]

in “AdTech Sucks” · View on HN

I started watching Adam Curtis' Century of the Self [1] recently, then decided to fact check [2]. Curtis makes out Sigmund Freuds nephew Edward Louis Bernays as the inventor of modern advertising, but he exaggerates for effect as usual. I've been a fan of busting ads for a long time, at least since I learned as a boy that I was being psychologically manipulated. We're an activist hub and the headquarters of Adbusters magazine, the journal of the mental environment. Since 1989, our international collective of artists, designers, writers, musicians, poets, punks, philosophers and wild hearts has been smashing ads, fighting corruption and speaking truth to power. [3] [1] The Century of the Self - Part 1: "Happiness Machines" ▶ this video [2] [link] [3] [link]

in “Adblocking people and non-adblocking people experience a different web” · View on HN