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 sel…