Truth is Out of Style

Edward Bernays was having the time of his life.

His career was rocketing after a successful marketing campaign for the American Tobacco Company. Lucky Strike was one of the most popular cigarettes in the world at the time, but sales among women had been virtually nonexistent.

That was until Bernays stepped in with his strategy to persuade women to smoke cigarettes instead of eating. Photographs showcasing the elegance of extremely thin women appeared in magazines and newspapers. Bernays even got medical authorities to promote the choice of cigarettes over sweets.

The strategy had worked, and now Bernays was enjoying the results of his hard work, but he had a new campaign in front of him: Torches of Freedom.

Edward Bernays was Sigmund Freud’s nephew, and as a result, Bernays had been exposed to complex abstract ideas nobody working in marketing had ever come across. He understood what really motivated people, not what everyone thought did.

"Torches of Freedom" was not just about selling a product; it was about challenging social norms and redefining freedom for women.

In spite of the previous success of the Lucky Strike campaign, women who smoked in public were widely viewed with disapproval. Bernays saw this not as a bug, but as a feature: he would transform cigarettes into symbols of rebellion and emancipation for women, turning a social prohibition into a lucrative marketing strategy.

The centerpiece of this campaign was the 1929 Easter Sunday parade in New York City. Bernays knew how to create a spectacle, and that’s what he did: a randomly scattered collection of attractive, fashionable women all lit up at the same time. Naturally, the dozens of journalists and photographers on hand to cover the parade took note.

Incredibly, Bernays had used inverted thinking to “flip the script”, turning a strong liability into his best asset.

The imagery of independent, assertive women confidently smoking in public was a stark contrast to the prevailing norms. The women's liberation movement would be associated with smoking for a generation.

Rebellion sold.

Newspapers across the country and beyond reported on this act of defiance, often with photographs of the event. The narrative was compelling: these women were not just smoking; they were lighting torches in a fight for equality.

Ever since then, advertising has taken for granted the idea that social issues could be manipulated for commercial gain. Think for a moment about how much that changes everything.

There’s little ethical debate around bending the truth in order to sell an idea or product. Prior to Bernays, in order to sell anything, you’d just tell everyone about the benefits of using the product itself.

After Bernays, selling meant telling people how they would feel, or manipulating them into feeling a certain way about a product.

This circles me back to the title of today’s piece, Truth is Out of Style.

If you grew up in the 80s, you might remember how the alternative music movement sort of swirled around everything. There was no specific genre or rules to be included in this new “genre”, so any sort of popular music that didn’t fit well was lumped in together.

One song I absolutely fell in love with from this era carries this title, and I’m going to leave you with this super nostalgic, weird video that kind of triggered me to write this piece today:

Bernays was called the “Father of Public Relations”, but it might also be fair to call him the “Father of Propaganda.” Modern manipulation by both companies and governments is commonly accepted as a cynical given nearly everywhere in the world.

Truth is, indeed, out of style, and we may have Edward Bernays to thank, at least in part.