ADM NO: 1029667

NAME: OMARIBA SANDRA MORAA

UNIT CODE: CMM 423

UNIT NAME: PUBLIC RELATIONS

LECTURER: MR. MOYO

resources or output of a business. [ CITATION Fre84 \l 1033 ] defined stakeholders as “any

identifiable group or individual who can affect the achievement of an organization’s objectives

or who is affected by the achievement of an organization’s objectives.” Stakeholders can affect

or be affected by the organization’s actions, objectives and policies. They affect decisions made

in an organization therefore, an organization needs to prioritize stakeholders in order to be

successful.

Some examples of stakeholders are creditors, directors, employees, parents, students,

government, owners (shareholders), suppliers, unions, and the community from which the

business draws its resources.

Importance of stakeholders in public relations

The Public Relations Society of America defined Public Relations as a strategic communication

process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.

Stakeholders are important because they are the community that the organization is serving.

There would be no organization without the community.

For instance, stakeholders can help shape your products or services at an early stage by giving

feedback on what they like or what they do not like. This makes it more likely that they will

support you and put their input to improve the quality of the products or services.
Edward Bernays, The Father of Public Relations

Edward Bernays was born in November 22, 1891 in Vienna, United States of America. Edward

Louis Bernays was an Austrian-American pioneer in the field of public relations and propaganda,

referred to in his obituary as "the father of public relations". He combined the ideas of Gustave

Le Bon and Wilfred Trotter on crowd psychology with the psychoanalytical ideas of his uncle,

Sigmund Freud. He felt this manipulation was necessary in society, which he regarded as

irrational and dangerous as a result of the "herd instinct" that Trotter had described. Adam

Curtis's award-winning 2002 documentary for the BBC, The Century of the Self, pinpoints

Bernays as the originator of modern public relations, and Bernays was named one of the 100

most influential Americans of the 20th century by Life Magazine.[ CITATION Enr16 \l 1033 ]

Interestingly, Bernays books also generated distrust of the profession and outrage about some of

its practices, rather than creating a more generally favorable view of public relations. Bernays '

notion of a two-way road was not the issue with Crystallizing Public Opinion. He described

public relations as well. The catchphrase he wrote in the novel, which he never gave up despite

the persistent critique was: "Public relations is the engineering of consent." Sure, it's catchy and

easy to remember, but Bernays's "choice of words when describing ties with public officials as

consent engineers" was, according to writers David Haberman and Harry Dolphin, an easy target

for the critics because it sounded as deceptive, mechanical and threatening, in their 1988

textbook Public Relations: The Necessary Art.

"The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses

is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of
society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are

governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have

never heard of."

"...the group mind does not think in the strict sense of the word. In place of thoughts it has

impulses, habits and emotions. In making up its mind its first impulse is usually to follow the

example of a trusted leader [an icon or celebrity]. This is one of the most firmly established

principles of mass psychology. But when the example of the leader is not at hand and the herd

must think for itself, it does so by means of cliches, pat words or images which stand for a whole

group of ideas or experiences." a

He helped shape public relations by urging opinion leaders, celebrities, physicians, and other

"experts" to use their endorsements to further reinforce their clients ' claims. He also preferred

surveys, the results of tests and surveys, to give better proof for the roles and goods of his

customers.

In order to overcome this challenge, Bernays used his unique approach. Too costly to remove the

green packaging. The idea-to transform the brand's green shade into a fashion season's showcase

color. In Waldorf-Astoria, Bernays persuaded fashion designers to include color in their new

season designs. For some of the leading entrepreneurs, the company held a "Green Gala."

The daring campaign went on. Bernays linked Lucky Strike cigarettes to the women's liberation

movement to crack the tabouin of smoking in public and held a protest at Easter Parade in 1929

where trendy young women had their "torches of independence," Lucky Strike cigarettes,

photographed. During those years the company was a symbol of gender equality in the U.S.
The Hearty breakfast was his other successful campaign. We have heard everyone say that

breakfast is the most important meal of the day and Bernays played a part in it .. The Beech-Nut

Packing Company was struggling to sell one of its largest meat products, bacon, so employed the

expertise of the reputable Bernays. Rather than simply reduce the price, Bernays posed a more

probing question – who tells the public what to eat?

Bernays spoke to numerous physicians, and together they concluded that a ‘hearty’ breakfast was

better than a light one. The American breakfast of the time – toast, orange juice, and coffee –

would be put on the scrap heap. Bernays got 5,000 physicians to sign a statement that agreed a

protein-rich, heavy breakfast of, say, bacon, and eggs, was healthier than a light one. The petition

was published in newspapers, and the all-American breakfast was born, with a huge spike in

sales of bacon. It’s no wonder he was also known as the ‘master of spin’.

The second successful initiative was to conquer the obstacle of guilt. To increase sales of Betty

Crocker instant cake mix, Bernays introduced more psychoanalytical methods. After a focus

group on the target market–American housewives–he found they seemed ignorant of the use of a

product that took so little effort. The solution–give them a more participatory feeling by

demanding that they add an egg to the mixture. The sales increased when the symbolic egg

tickled the subconscious' depths and eliminated the guilt barrier.

This was by far Bernays’ favourite campaigns that he did. Bernays’ work with Procter &

Gamble’s ‘Ivory Soap’ is another textbook case of marketing psychology in action. In the

Bernays line of thinking, he aimed to broaden the market by tackling childrens’ inherent distaste

for soap and bathing, while distinguishing the brand from competitors. Why did the children hate
bathing with soap? Most children did not like the burning or stinging feeling when soap entered

their eyes while bathing.

Inspired by an artist he had met who used soap instead of wax to carve miniature sculptures,

Bernays created the annual National Soap Sculpture Competition to inspire children, ‘’the

enemies of soap’’, to get creative with it. The competition ran annually for 25 years and involved

millions of children, and cast the name ‘Ivory Soap’ into the public consciousness.

Bernays also started events such as a soap yacht race in Central Park, to prove it floated better

than competitor brands, and employed a medical consultant to survey American hospitals on

their preference for white, unperfumed soap such as Ivory, rather than the coloured, scented

soaps most competitors used.

CONCLUSION

As you can imagine, Bernays’ methods were, and still are, extremely contentious, especially

when utilised in the public sphere and politics. But the introduction of psychoanalytical

techniques in shaping consumer demand is the foundation upon which all modern public

relations is built, and Bernays was the man behind it.

References
4 PR campaigns of Edward Bernays. (n.d.). Retrieved March 11, 2020, from

https://www.edology.com/blog/marketing/pr-campaigns-edward-bernays/

Bernays, E.L (1928). Propaganda. Brooklyn, New York

Edward Bernays, 'Father of Public Relations' And Leader in Opinion Making, Dies at 103.

(1995,March10).Retrieved March10, 2020, from

https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/08/16/specials/bernays-obit.html

Freeman, R. E. 1984. Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach. Boston: Pitman

Publishing.

Gunderman, R. (2019, December 5). The manipulation of the American mind: Edward Bernays

and the birth of public relations. Retrieved March 10, 2020, from http://theconversation.com/the-

manipulation-of-the-american-mind-edward-bernays-and-the-birth-of-public-relations-44393

Suarez, E. (2016). Edward Bernays: The Father of Public Relations and Architect of the

Consumer Mind The Century of the Self. Harvard University, Boston MA.

Turney, M. (2015, August 15). Edward Bernays: Father and Philosopher of Public Relations.

Retrieved March 10, 2020, from https://www.nku.edu/~turney/prclass/readings/bernays.html