Page 180 - Dragon Flood

ever took out ads in the papers. One of his methods for altering public opinion was to
fabricate a news event and tip off reporters as to when it would occur. The newspapers
would write about the event as if it was a spontaneous occurrence, and Bernays would have
key phrases and buzz words already prepared to guide the public’s perception of the event.

An example of how Bernay’s operated is observed in his work for the American Tobacco
Company. In 1928 George Washington Hill, the president of ATC realized that there was
a huge untapped segment of the public to whom cigarettes could potentially be sold. This
segment was women. At the time it was considered taboo for women to smoke. This social
stigma decreased the market potential for cigarettes in half. Hill hired Bernays to overcome
this public censorship of women smoking.

Bernays consulted with an American psychoanalyst to discover what cigarettes actually
represented to women. A.A. Brill was the man Bernays consulted. Brill told him that a
woman saw cigarettes as a symbol of male prowess. Cigarettes were associated with
masculine power and authority. Bernays was encouraged to play upon this association by
enticing women to smoke by appealing to their innate desire to be equal to men.

Bernays hired ten New York debutantes to carry cigarettes hidden in their clothes during
the Easter Parade in New York. At a predetermined moment they were all to pull out their
cigarettes and light them as they marched along in the parade. Bernays notified some
members of the press that this was going to occur, and they were ready with cameras to
photograph the women as they lit and smoked their cigarettes in public. Bernays cunningly
described the cigarettes as “torches of freedom,” playing on the woman’s desire to be equal
to man, and able to do whatever man could do in public.

Woman with Torch of Freedom in Her Hand

This event received significant press, and instantly cigarettes became a symbol of liberation
for women. The success of this public relations stunt is observed in the percentage of
women who smoke.