Century of Self

The Century of The Self quotes Sigmund Freud describing "primitive sexual and aggressive forces hidden deep inside the minds of all human beings [as] forces [that] if not controlled, [would] lead societies into chaos and destruction. The focus of the documentary expands on Freud's theory in the direction of "How those in power have tried to control the dangerous crowed in an age of mass democracy"

One of the most interesting aspects of The Century of The Self is that it reveals the progression of advertising.

A starting point for advertising as it is presently known would have been during WWII. Propaganda took Freud's theory and used it to manipulate people for political purposes. Propaganda was one of the first active illustrations of using people's inner desires for a purpose. For example people wanted an honest, relatable, yet strong leader in Germany, and videos such as Triumph of the Wills were created to portray Hitler in such light.

After the war Bernays said,"If you could use propaganda for war you could certainly use propaganda for peace." Bernays instantly became a Pioneer in persuasive advertising. First, he changed the word propaganda to 'public relations' because it had such a poor connotation. Today, public relations includes all mass media, but from the documentary it sounded as though the original thought of public relations was about "making money by manipulating the unconscious", otherwise known as advertising.

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 Bernays set out to get women to start smoking. He created this idea of "Lighting up torches of Freedom." The idea was to press in on the desire of liberty and equality. If everyone has freedom in America, then everyone is equal. Since women wanted equality and the cigarettes were selling an idea of freedom, then they would sell. Bernays said "It made him realize that it was possible to persuade people to act irrationally if you linked products to their emotional desires, and feelings. The idea that smoking actually made women freer was completely irrational, but it made them feel more independent; it meant that irrelevant objects could become powerful emotional symbols of how you wanted to be seen by others."

There is a clear progression from Freud's theory, to the use of his theory for  propaganda,  for public relations, then for advertising as it is known today. The same thought existed all along it simply expanded from a political force to a consumer force.