If everybody believes something,
it's probably wrong.
In America, conventional wisdom that has mass acceptance
is usually contrived: somebody paid for it. Examples:
- Pharmaceuticals restore health
- Vaccination brings immunity
- The cure for cancer is just around the corner
- When a child is sick, he needs immediate antibiotics
- When a child has a fever he needs Tylenol
- Hospitals are safe and clean.
- America has the best health care in the world.
- And many many more
This is a list of illusions, that have cost billions and
billions to conjure up. Did you ever wonder why you never
see the President speaking publicly unless he is reading?
Or why most people in this country think generally the same
about most of the above issues?
How This Set-Up Got Started
In Trust Us We're Experts, Stauber and Rampton pull together
some compelling data describing the science of creating public
opinion in America.
They trace modern public influence back to the early part
of the last century, highlighting the work of guys like Edward
L. Bernays, the Father of Spin. From his own amazing chronicle
Propaganda, we learn how Edward L. Bernays took the ideas
of his famous uncle Sigmund Freud himself, and applied them
to the emerging science of mass persuasion.
The only difference was that instead of using these principles
to uncover hidden themes in the human unconscious, the way
Freudian psychology does, Bernays used these same ideas to
mask agendas and to create illusions that deceive and misrepresent,
for marketing purposes.
The Father Of Spin
Bernays dominated the PR industry until the 1940s, and was a significant force for
another 40 years after that. (Tye) During all that time, Bernays
took on hundreds of diverse assignments to create
a public perception about some idea or product.
A few examples:
- As a neophyte with the Committee on Public Information, one of Bernays' first assignments was to help sell the First World War to the American public with the idea to "Make the World Safe for Democracy." (Ewen)
- A few years later, Bernays set up a stunt to popularize the notion of women smoking cigarettes. In organizing the 1929 Easter Parade in New York City, Bernays showed himself as a force to be reckoned with.
- He organized the Torches of Liberty Brigade in which suffragettes marched in the parade smoking cigarettes as a mark of women's liberation. Such publicity followed from that one event that from then on women have felt secure about destroying their own lungs in public, the same way that men have always done.
- Bernays popularized the idea of bacon for breakfast.
- Not one to turn down a challenge, he set up the advertising format along with the AMA that lasted for nearly 50 years proving that cigarettes are beneficial to health. Just look at ads in issues of Life or Time from the 40s and 50s.
Smoke And Mirrors
Bernay's job was to reframe an issue;
to create a desired image that would put a particular product
or concept in a desirable light. Bernays described the public
as a 'herd that needed to be led.' And this herdlike thinking
makes people "susceptible to leadership."
Bernays never deviated from his fundamental axiom to "control
the masses without their knowing it." The best PR happens
with the people unaware that they are being manipulated.
Stauber describes Bernays' rationale like this:
"the scientific manipulation of public opinion was necessary to overcome chaos and conflict in a democratic society." Trust Us p 42
These early mass persuaders postured themselves as performing
a moral service for humanity in general - democracy was too
good for people; they needed to be
told what to think, because they were incapable
of rational thought by themselves. Here's a paragraph from
Bernays' Propaganda:
"Those who manipulate the unseen mechanism of society
constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling
power of our country. We are governed, our minds molded, our
tastes formed, our ideas suggested largely by men we have
never heard of.
This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic
society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate
in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly
functioning society.
In almost every act of our lives whether in the sphere of
politics or business in our social conduct or our ethical
thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number
of persons who understand the mental processes and social
patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires that
control the public mind."
Here Comes The Money
Once the possibilities of applying Freudian psychology to
mass media were glimpsed, Bernays soon had more corporate
clients than he could handle. Global corporations fell all
over themselves courting the new Image Makers. There were
dozens of goods and services and ideas to be sold
to a susceptible public. Over the years, these
players have had the money to make their images happen. A
few examples:
| Philip Morris | Pfizer | Union Carbide |
| Allstate | Monsanto | Eli Lilly |
| tobacco industry | Ciba Geigy | lead industry |
| Coors | DuPont | Chlorox |
| Shell Oil | Standard Oil | Procter & Gamble |
| Boeing | General Motors | Dow Chemical |
| General Mills | Goodyear |
The Players
Though world-famous within the PR industry, the companies have names we don't know, and for good reason.
Though world-famous within the PR industry, the companies have names we don't know, and for good reason.
The best PR goes unnoticed.
For decades they have created the opinions that most of us
were raised with, on virtually any issue which has the remotest
commercial value, including:
| pharmaceutical drugs | vaccines |
| medicine as a profession | alternative medicine |
| fluoridation of city water | chlorine |
| household cleaning products | tobacco |
| dioxin | global warming |
| leaded gasoline | cancer research and treatment |
| pollution of the oceans | forests and lumber |
| images of celebrities, including damage control | crisis and disaster management |
| genetically modified foods | aspartame |
| food additives; processed foods | dental amalgams |
Lesson #1
Bernays learned early on that the most effective way to create
credibility for a product or an image was by "independent
third-party" endorsement.
For example, if General Motors were to come out and say that
global warming is a hoax thought up by some liberal tree-huggers,
people would suspect GM's motives, since GM's fortune is made
by selling automobiles.
If however some independent research institute with a very
credible sounding name like the Global Climate Coalition comes
out with a scientific report that says global warming is really
a fiction, people begin to get confused and to have doubts
about the original issue.
So that's exactly what Bernays did. With a policy inspired
by genius, he set up "more institutes and foundations
than Rockefeller and Carnegie combined." (Stauber p 45)
Quietly financed by the industries whose products were being
evaluated, these "independent" research agencies
would churn out "scientific" studies and press materials
that could create any image their
handlers wanted.
Such front groups are given high-sounding
names like:
| Temperature Research Foundation | Manhattan Institute |
| International Food Information Council | Center for Produce Quality |
| Consumer Alert | Tobacco Institute Research Council |
| The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition | Cato Institute |
| Air Hygiene Foundation |
| American Council on Science and Health | |
| Industrial Health Federation | Global Climate Coalition |
| International Food Information Council | Alliance for Better Foods |
Sound pretty legit don't they?
Canned News Releases
As Stauber explains, these organizations and hundreds of
others like them are front groups whose sole mission is to
advance the image of the global corporations who fund them,
like those listed on page 2 above.
This is accomplished in part by an endless stream of 'press
releases' announcing "breakthrough" research to
every radio station and newspaper in the country. (Robbins)
Many of these canned reports read like straight news, and
indeed are purposely molded in the news format.
This saves journalists the trouble of researching the subjects
on their own, especially on topics about which they know very
little. Entire sections of the release or in the case of video
news releases, the whole thing can be just lifted intact,
with no editing, given the byline of the reporter or newspaper
or TV station - and voilá! Instant news - copy and
paste. Written by corporate PR firms.
Does this really happen? Every single day, since the 1920s
when the idea of the News Release was first invented by Ivy
Lee. (Stauber, p 22) Sometimes as many as half the stories
appearing in an issue of the Wall St. Journal are based solely
on such PR press releases.. (22)
These types of stories are mixed
right in with legitimately researched stories.
Unless you have done the research yourself, you won't be able
to tell the difference.
The Language Of Spin
As 1920s spin pioneers like Ivy Lee and Edward Bernays gained
more experience, they began to formulate rules
and guidelines for creating public opinion. They
learned quickly that mob psychology must focus on emotion,
not facts. Since the mob is incapable of rational thought,
motivation must be based not on logic but on presentation.
Here are some of the axioms of the new science of PR:
- technology is a religion unto itself
- if people are incapable of rational thought, real democracy is dangerous
- important decisions should be left to experts
- when reframing issues, stay away from substance; create images
- never state a clearly demonstrable lie
Words are very carefully chosen for their emotional impact.
Here's an example. A front group called the International
Food Information Council handles the public's natural aversion
to genetically modified foods.
Trigger words are repeated
all through the text. Now in the case of GM foods, the public
is instinctively afraid of these experimental new creations
which have suddenly popped up on our grocery shelves which
are said to have DNA alterations.
The IFIC wants to reassure
the public of the safety of GM foods, so it avoids words like:
| Frankenfoods | Hitler | biotech |
| chemical | DNA | experiments |
| manipulate | money | safety |
| scientists | radiation | roulette |
| gene-splicing | gene gun | random |
Instead, good PR for GM foods contains words like:
| hybrids | natural order | beauty |
| choice | bounty | cross-breeding |
| diversity | earth | farmer |
| organic | wholesome |
It's basic Freudian/Tony Robbins word
association. The fact that GM foods are not hybrids
that have been subjected to the slow and careful scientific
methods of real crossbreeding doesn't really matter. This
is pseudoscience, not science. Form is everything and substance
just a passing myth. (Trevanian)
Who do you think funds the International Food Information
Council? Take a wild guess. Right - Monsanto, DuPont, Frito-Lay,
Coca Cola, Nutrasweet - those in a position to make fortunes
from GM foods. (Stauber p 20)
Characteristics Of Good Propaganda
Characteristics Of Good Propaganda
As the science of mass control evolved, PR firms developed
further guidelines for effective copy. Here are some of the
gems:
- dehumanize the attacked party by labeling and name calling
- speak in glittering generalities using emotionally positive words
- when covering something up, don't use plain English; stall for time; distract
- get endorsements from celebrities, churches, sports figures, street people - anyone who has no expertise in the subject at hand
- the 'plain folks' ruse: us billionaires are just like you
- when minimizing outrage, don't say anything memorable, point out the benefits of what just happened, and avoid moral issues
Keep this list. Start watching for these techniques. Not
hard to find - look at today's paper or tonight's TV news.
See what they're doing; these guys are good!
