6 ideas
A relatively small number of unseen people who understand how the masses think make most of the choices that shape a democracy's tastes, opinions and policies. Bernays argues this is not a corruption of democracy but the way a society of millions organises itself. Without a few people narrowing the options, the public would be paralysed by too many choices.
People take most of their opinions ready-made from the groups they belong to and the leaders they trust, not from weighing evidence themselves. It is therefore more efficient to win over the opinion leader of a group than to persuade its members one by one. The leader's endorsement then spreads through the group as if members had reached the view on their own.
Instead of telling consumers to buy a piano, Bernays's approach makes the home music room fashionable. It does this through architects, decorators, and exhibitions sponsored by prominent people. Once the music room is established as a mark of a cultured home, people seek out a piano on their own initiative. The product becomes the answer to a desire someone else has shaped.
The 'new propaganda' does not argue for a product or cause directly. It stages events and arranges circumstances that the press reports as news and that people react to as reality. The event produces the impression the propagandist wants while hiding who is behind it.
Crowds respond to symbols, clichés and habitual associations rather than to reasoned argument. An effective campaign ties its object to motives and images the public already holds strongly, such as status, health, patriotism, freedom or motherhood. The emotion the symbol already carries then transfers to the product, candidate or cause.
Bernays argues that deliberately and intelligently manipulating the organised habits and opinions of the masses is an important, necessary part of democratic society. He presents public relations counsel as a legitimate profession that explains institutions to the public and the public to institutions. He also claims its power is checked because competing interests all have access to the same tools.