E.Bernays, Bulimic society and celebrity culture

   Edward Bernays was the nephew of Sigmund Frued, son to his sister Anna Freud. He used his uncle's theories of the subconscious mind in the world of business to make money. In his day, the mass media presented products based purely on their practical advantages, so that a car, for example, would be presented on grounds of its speed, useful life and materials. Rather, Bernays found that by linking the product to one of the innate desires of the subconscious, like power and liberty. Thus, it is common today to see cars being promoted as pathways toward these ideas. The first trial Bernays conducted was with a sale of cigarettes: at the time there was a taboo against women smoking, and the owner of a cigarette company, George Hill, asked him to solve this, as that would increase his sales. Bernays took advantage of the feminist movements, and in one propaganda for Hill's cigarettes, where he got female actors to smoke, he presented the product as torches of freedom. Thus, the cigarettes were made into a symbol of the fight against male oppression, and sales of them, specially the brand featured in the propaganda, shot up. More strategies to appeal to the subconscious mind include emitting a sense of urgency (This product is exclusive and can't be bought anywhere else after the following 15 seconds!) and social conformity (Everyone is buying this product. What are you waiting for?).

   I think we can all agree, even smokers out there, that cigarettes are not necessary, however much desirable a person might find them, and it is exactly this on which the paradigm of consumerism is based: people must want to buy things even when they don't need them. Bernays' approach is the best profitability-wise, but it requires a culture of desire, and this leads to what Young calls social bulimia (see Bulimic society, 07/06/2020). In this culture of desire, there is a hierarchy where the highest and more valued are those who consume more and more expensive products, especially if they share these products and experiences on social media – show yourself to be someone. With the introduction of Neo-liberalism, the free market economy (offer and demand), Fordism, the mass production of standardised goods, becomes Post-Fordism, which is the production of personalised goods for niche, specialised markets. Thus, for example, there are now many brands of clothing for all tastes and styles, while not long ago the options would have been limited. Moreover, businesses were able to use to their advantage something that had been created relatively recently: celebrity culture. Celebrities, defined simply as someone who is widely known, have always existed – you can even think of Achilles and Agamemnon, in the XIII - XII century BC – but the mass media, by focusing heavily on famous people, have created a culture of celebrity worship. In his book the Science of Celebrity – Is Gwyneth Paltrow Wrong about Everything?, T. Caulfield presents various studies where primary school children report that their primary life goal is being famous – they don't even note how, as in rock star or actor, just being famous, and this is rated even over being rich. A para-social relationship is one where one of the parties involved invests tremendous amounts of effort on the other, but the other knows little to nothing about them. For example, a person might claim that they have an intimate romantic relationship with their favourite singer, but they have only communicated with them via Twitter (social media messaging creates the illusion that there is contact). However extreme this might be, the tendency to follow well-known people is a human thing. It has been speculated that it stems from tribal structures, where the leader, who got his position through being noted as the best hunter, is to be imitated so that others too become better hunters. Businesses use this to their advantage: adverts that feature celebrities using new products highly increase their consumption by the general public, because they want to feel similar to that celebrity, as this gives them the feeling that they too are successful. However, Caulfield notes, even the idea of success is an illusion: people think that being a movie star is the highlife, but in fact Hollywood actors are subject to tremendous pressure to remain fit, thin and attractive and, for women, their career tends to be over by the time they are 40.

   Thus, Bernays created, using psychoanalytical theory, the system of propaganda that would lead to the consumerist and bulimic society, where the economy is maintained by making people want things they don't need and, in truth, are not as desirable as painted. However, as it seems, if people didn't consume so much, businesses would go bankrupt and the economy would crush, as this is no simple question.

   Thank you for reading, if you found it interesting share it with you friends and family. To investigate further ron the topic, I would recommend Timothy Caulfield's book the Science of Celebrity – Is Gwyneth Paltrow Wrong about Everything?, and the documentaries the Century of the Self and Starsuckers Documentary, both available on YouTube.