Keeping track of my discoveries, progress, and inspiration.

The Attitudes And Actions Of People

Sigmund Freud’s nephew Edward Bernays, the father of public relations, is the reason why you eat bacon and eggs for breakfast.

In the early 20th Century most Americans ate a light breakfast. It wasn’t until The Beechnut Packing Company was having trouble selling bacon that it changed. After being hired by the company to help solve the problem, Bernays asked his doctor if he’d recommend a hearty breakfast or a light one. The doctor said people should eat more protein in the morning since they burn calories at night. Makes sense…

Bernays sent a survey to thousands of doctors asking if they agreed, they did. Then he sent these results to newspapers around the country which all posted headlines around the same title: “4,500 physicians urge Americans to eat heavy breakfasts to improve their health.” Recommending bacon and eggs as a healthy option.​

In an essay called The Engineering Of Consent Bernays wrote that, “News is not an inanimate thing. It is the overt act that makes news, and news in turn shapes the attitudes and actions of people.”

He didn’t hire a doctor to go talk about how great bacon is for people’s health. He systematically planted the idea into the public psyche and that translated to more people buying bacon. He influenced people’s attitudes which influenced their actions.

It Ain’t Nasty

Until he was on National Television in 1956, there was very little bad press about Elvis Presley. RCA Records had just spent an unprecedented amount of money to buy out his Sun Records contract and he was playing shows every night across the country. Momentum was building quickly.

Then he was broadcast to millions of people on Milton Berle’s NBC show. The press was ruthless:

“Mr. Presley has no discernable singing ability.” — The New York Times

“Pop music has reached it’s lowest depths in the ‘grunt and groin’ antics of one Elvis Presley” — The Daily News

“If entertainment could be confined to records, it might not be too bad an influence on the young, but unfortunately Presley makes personal appearances.” — America Magazine

The television deal was a part of his manager Col. Tom Parker’s elaborate promotional scheme that was meant to put Elvis in the national spotlight. He didn’t seem to care about the backlash but Elvis responded with characteristic authenticity:

“There is low-down people and high up people, but all of them get the kind of feeling this rock n’ roll music tells about… When it’s gone, I’ll switch to something else… But the way I’m singing now is what makes the money. Would you change if you was me?… When I sing this rock n’ roll, my eyes won’t stay open and my legs won’t stand still. I don’t care what they say, it ain’t nasty.”

The emerging opinions were starting to shape the attitudes of the public but also of Elvis himself. He was going deeper into himself and codifying why he was doing it. Plus he had 6 hit singles on the list of RCA’s top 25 best sellers. In his manager’s words, “no press is bad press.”

Standing Beside Love

Martin Luther King Jr. knew that it was going to take more than moral high ground to win the Civil Rights Movement. Even though he thought that, “all reality hinges on moral foundations,” he knew it wasn’t enough just to believe in it. He had to use tools:

“Standing beside love is always justice and we are only using the tools of justice. Not only are we using the tools of persuasion but we’ve come to see that we’ve got to use the tools of coercion. Not only is this thing a process of education but it is also a process of legislation.”

Believing that love is the fabric that holds the universe together and that there is a moral law which has its own consequences is important. But it doesn’t get people out of jail.

Even though he was right, even though it was hard to accept, he had to play by a set of rules. He had to understand the workings of the political and socio-economic systems. He had to use strategy and tactics that would move the public over to his side.

He had to engineer consent.

Talk to you next week,

Dawson