Propaganda

"This is a short read. You can also find the PDF online . I believe it was first written for The New York Times— he was a columnist for the Times— and I think it was originally published as short pieces. Propaganda is exactly what it sounds like, a short guide. If you’re going to take over the world, this is how you would do it. It through content planning, and ways that you can confuse or change the way people think about things. He was really the father of public relations. What people don’t realise is that PR was originally called ‘propaganda.’ After World War II, that word had such negative connotations that they changed it to public relations, but PR and propaganda are one and the same. So this offers a really interesting breakdown of how little has changed in, almost, 100 years. Everything in there, the ideas and tools, are still being used today, even down to . . . I don’t know if you remember this, but there was some controversy with a Broadway play, Hamilton. Vice-President Mike Pence went to the play and then there was an uproar. They didn’t want to perform it front of him . . . it was this whole drama. I’m not saying this was propaganda, I’m just saying that if it were , it could have come out of the book, Propaganda . Edward Bernays’ Propaganda talks about how to use Broadway as a tool. It talks about if someone builds a building, build one next to them 10 stories higher. It’s a very creative media breakdown. I’m sorry for anyone that disagrees, but I think that if we don’t think of it as propaganda, then we’re basically just tools for it and not really looking at what our marketing, branding, and even social media posting is doing to the world. It is so easy to believe that we cannot or are not impacting our world, but we are, every single one of us. As a marketer more generally, ethics is really important, but something for us all to consider. Let’s assume we’re all good at it, right? If you’re listening, you’re good at it. If you’re good at it, that means people will see it. If people will see it, it will change their life in some way. We really have to dive in and ask ourselves, are we okay with that? If we’re not looking at it as propaganda and we’re just looking at it as public relations, then we might convince ourselves we are when we’re not. So from a moral point or perspective, yes, it is one and the same. Anything that you put forth can change the perspective of someone else; that’s what propaganda is. The second thing is, the only way to combat propaganda is with propaganda. The only way to compete with PR is through PR. The only way to beat influencers is via other influencers. So when you talk about being authentic, do you genuinely care about the thing you’re pushing? Do a little research before you take on campaigns, or work with certain companies. It could be really, really useful. So, yes, I do think it’s important. I highly suggest you read Propaganda . I talk about it in my book. PR, propaganda, and even psychology are closely tied to each other, even from a familial perspective: Charles Bernays was Sigmund Freud’s nephew. Ivy Lee (the personal brand, the father of modern PR and the first person to send a press release) was brother to Laura Lee Burroughs, the author and mother to William S Burroughs. The stories of how PR came to be is quite like anything else, it started with a smaller group of people and as it grew was passed down in some way to other generations close to them. Take the time to really think about it. Sometimes all you really need to do is lay the foundations. That means doing the research, properly creating a plan, and taking the time to understand your story so simply that others can understand it immediately when they see your profiles. It doesn’t have to be as big of a deal as how people paint it to be. You might find you actually really enjoy it, and take the next step or the next three steps. Then you will see huge changes in what other people know about you, the opportunities that are put forth in front of you, and maybe even an overall change in how you feel about yourself. Sometimes, in putting the things you’ve done down on paper, at first you feel: ‘oh, this is so vain,’ or: ‘I’m showing off.’ But sometimes writing it down you think: ‘I’ve done more than I thought.’ You’d be surprised at what people don’t know about you. You’re being skipped over because no one knows about you. It’s time to tell them. Put it out there and see what happens. You don’t know what you are missing out on by not doing it."