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Marketing is an interesting thing. Edward Bernays was paid by the tobacco companies to get more women to smoke and manufactured an entire fake women's lib campa
by djsumdog 9y ago
Marketing is an interesting thing. Edward Bernays was paid by the tobacco companies to get more women to smoke and manufactured an entire fake women's lib campaign called "Torches of Freedom" that equivocated smoking with women's suffrage. He was also one of the earliest instances of made up doctors and studies to prove you should have a huge bacon, eggs and toast breakfast.
Bernays was the first to really push the emotional connection between ads and products. Prior to the 1930s, most advertisements were more descriptions of what they did, or compared themselves to other brands. There are some cases of emotional hooks here and there, but it didn't really pick up until Bernays, and later Anna Freud and the invention of the Focus Group.
Now we have tons of industries that have turned specific days into huge consumer pulls, like Valentines Day .. or .. well .. Christmas.
Merry axe-mass everyone! Stay safe from robo santa!
- tomjakubowski 9y agoThis is really fascinating stuff. I had no idea that Sigmund Freud was married into the family that pioneered emotionally-based marketing! How did you learn this stuff? Do you have a book recommendation?
- venomsnake 9y agoI learned it from Mission Earth. L.Ron Hubbard one.
- djsumdog 9y agoI'd recommend the BBC documentary The Century of The Self. It's a multi-part film by Adam Curtis.