Touching Emotions with Ads - Edward Bernays

Edward Beynaiss, also described as "the man who reads the minds of crowds", was born on November 22, 1891 in Vienna. The secret that makes him so successful in advertising campaigns is that he took Freud's ideas and used them for the manipulation of the masses. Edward, Freud's nephew, has proven that although his name is not heard much, with his campaigns, it is necessary to appeal to the emotions in order to sell a product. 

I mentioned above that Edward was inspired by the ideas of his uncle Freud. Freud's theories argue that many people are essentially unconscious and irrational in their decision-making processes. Freud was the only person to realize that people's feelings of insecurity lead them to exaggeration and overreaction, while also realizing that humans are easily manipulated animals, especially within the group. Thanks to Freud, Edward understood something in the industry that no one had before:

 If you can tap into people's emotional insecurities—if you can tap into their deepest feelings and inadequacies—they will buy into anything you say.

The American government, which entered World War I, wants a committee to be established in order to raise awareness of the people, they want to convince the people that they are involved in this war to bring democracy, not to fight and re-establish the disintegrated empires. Edward also finds a way to join the committee and is extraordinarily successful in marketing the idea both at home and abroad.

So much so that he even received an invitation to attend the Paris Peace Conference with the then US President Woodrow Wilson. He was 26 years old when he achieved this success. Edward, who was in Paris during the whole conference, has difficulty even believing the results of his studies, the European people see the US president as a hero. Seeing the crowds swaying around Wilson, Edward has an idea. Could the masses be persuaded so strongly in peacetime? When Edward returns to America, he immediately holds a small office and establishes the "Public Relations Council". He gave his first public relations lecture in New York in 1922, and he also wrote the first public relations book in 1923 with his book, Crystallizing Public Opinion.

The event that will make Edward so famous and shake the advertising world will take place in 1928. George Washington Hill, the director of the Tobacco company, could not get women to smoke no matter what he did. That's why it was losing half of its market. While thinking about finding a solution to this issue, she met Edward. George asked her to come up with an idea for a women's smoking campaign.

Edward consulted Freud before starting work. According to Freud, in order to sell a product, it was necessary to appeal not to reason, but to emotions. It was wrong to appeal to reason to sell cigarettes. Because smoking was a harmful habit and he could not do it by appealing to reason. He could do it by appealing to the emotions. First of all, she tried to understand what smoking meant in women's perception from her uncle's work. As a result of his research, he discovered that the cigarette symbolizes the penis and reminds the sexual power of the man. If he could combine cigarettes with the idea of ​​a rebellion against male domination, the way for women to smoke would be cleared.

 Edward decided to stage an event on Easter, one of America's most crowded ceremonies. He told several socialite women to hide cigarettes in their clothes. They would flash their cigarettes at Edward's signal. Edward, who also informed the members of the press, stated that a group of activists defending women's suffrage would carry out a demonstration by lighting their cigarettes, which they called "Liberty Torches"

Women who wanted to have the same rights as men in the crowd were smoking cigarettes they called "Liberty Torches". Here, such a perception management was created that a taboo that continued for centuries was overthrown in a short time. This event created the perception thatwomen who smoke cigarettes are strong and free. After that point, there was an incredible increase in cigarette sales.

The result of this event was actually this:

‘’Very unrelated objects can become very powerful when they carry emotional symbols of how you want to be seen by others.’’

 Surprised by Edward's work, American companies quickly transformed their advertising. After this study, all companies prepared their advertisement studies by benefiting from the work of psychoanalysts. This path opened by Edward created a great change in the behavior of the masses. This trend, which started in America, has spread all over the world with the globalization of the companies here.