1 00:00:16,440 --> 00:00:20,320 Speaker 1: There are two key public relations figures that I've gone 2 00:00:20,360 --> 00:00:23,640 Speaker 1: back and forth on, including in this season. They didn't 3 00:00:23,640 --> 00:00:26,680 Speaker 1: spend a ton of time working directly for oil companies, 4 00:00:26,880 --> 00:00:30,120 Speaker 1: but they did work for the industry somewhat, and they 5 00:00:30,320 --> 00:00:33,239 Speaker 1: certainly influenced all of our other mad men. So I 6 00:00:33,280 --> 00:00:36,479 Speaker 1: want to touch on that influence and their stories today. 7 00:00:37,120 --> 00:00:40,879 Speaker 1: I'm Amy Westervelt, and this is Drilled, season three, the 8 00:00:41,000 --> 00:00:51,879 Speaker 1: mad Men of Climate Denial. The first person I want 9 00:00:51,880 --> 00:00:54,760 Speaker 1: to talk about today is Edward Berneze. We mentioned to 10 00:00:54,800 --> 00:00:57,520 Speaker 1: him briefly in our Ivy Lee episodes at the start 11 00:00:57,600 --> 00:01:01,160 Speaker 1: of the season. Berneze and Lee worked together during World 12 00:01:01,240 --> 00:01:04,280 Speaker 1: War One, when Lee was handling publicity for the American 13 00:01:04,319 --> 00:01:07,440 Speaker 1: Red Cross and Bernez was the film guy on the 14 00:01:07,560 --> 00:01:11,760 Speaker 1: US war propaganda team. The two became fast friends, and 15 00:01:11,840 --> 00:01:15,440 Speaker 1: Lee generally considered Bernese his only real equal in the 16 00:01:15,480 --> 00:01:19,440 Speaker 1: publicity realm. Shortly before he died, Lee and Bernese went 17 00:01:19,480 --> 00:01:23,680 Speaker 1: to lunch, and Lee expressed his concern that public relations 18 00:01:23,720 --> 00:01:26,039 Speaker 1: would die with the two of them, that it would 19 00:01:26,040 --> 00:01:28,440 Speaker 1: just be a flash in the pan, a brief trend. 20 00:01:29,000 --> 00:01:33,880 Speaker 1: Bernese was not about to let that happen. Likely Edward 21 00:01:33,920 --> 00:01:37,759 Speaker 1: Bernese was an expert in behavioral psychology, but he'd come 22 00:01:37,800 --> 00:01:40,360 Speaker 1: about that knowledge in an unusual way. 23 00:01:40,920 --> 00:01:45,560 Speaker 2: Well, my mother was his younger sister, and my father 24 00:01:46,880 --> 00:01:48,480 Speaker 2: was the brother of his wife. 25 00:01:48,760 --> 00:01:52,680 Speaker 1: That's right, he was Sigmund Freud's double nephew. What are 26 00:01:52,680 --> 00:01:53,280 Speaker 1: the odds? 27 00:01:54,000 --> 00:02:01,720 Speaker 2: The dinner table at night became a discussion forum at 28 00:02:01,800 --> 00:02:07,360 Speaker 2: which the two parents would discuss what was on their minds, 29 00:02:08,280 --> 00:02:13,720 Speaker 2: and children were seen and not heard, but actually children listened. 30 00:02:14,320 --> 00:02:20,640 Speaker 2: I heard about my uncle's theory of dream interpretation. I 31 00:02:20,760 --> 00:02:27,160 Speaker 2: heard about psychology as being an important force in evaluating 32 00:02:27,320 --> 00:02:34,760 Speaker 2: human behavior. I heard of repression and regression and suppression 33 00:02:35,840 --> 00:02:43,920 Speaker 2: and projection, and taboos and edible complexes. And while I 34 00:02:44,040 --> 00:02:53,320 Speaker 2: never had a course in Freudian psychology, I did help 35 00:02:53,440 --> 00:03:00,280 Speaker 2: to translate the first book that Freud had published. 36 00:02:59,800 --> 00:03:02,960 Speaker 1: In The other big influencer we're going to look at 37 00:03:02,960 --> 00:03:06,480 Speaker 1: today is Howard Chase. Chase came onto the scene a 38 00:03:06,560 --> 00:03:09,239 Speaker 1: few decades after Bernese, and in a lot of ways 39 00:03:09,400 --> 00:03:14,280 Speaker 1: was his intellectual progeny. He expanded on Bernese's ideas about 40 00:03:14,360 --> 00:03:18,360 Speaker 1: shaping public opinion, encouraging companies to predict which issues they 41 00:03:18,440 --> 00:03:20,880 Speaker 1: might have with the public and then head them off 42 00:03:20,960 --> 00:03:26,120 Speaker 1: early by shifting public perceptions. Chase is responsible for one 43 00:03:26,160 --> 00:03:29,680 Speaker 1: of the most famous bits of greenwashing ever created. But 44 00:03:29,760 --> 00:03:32,240 Speaker 1: we'll get to that in a bit. First we have 45 00:03:32,320 --> 00:03:35,760 Speaker 1: to go back to World War One. 46 00:03:35,800 --> 00:03:38,800 Speaker 2: Get your gun, Get your gun, Get your gun. 47 00:03:39,120 --> 00:03:41,400 Speaker 3: I'm taking on the run, on the. 48 00:03:41,440 --> 00:03:47,200 Speaker 2: Run, on the run. At the age of nineteen twenty six. 49 00:03:47,680 --> 00:03:51,960 Speaker 2: I was in Parish for the entire time of the 50 00:03:52,000 --> 00:03:56,360 Speaker 2: peace conference. That it was held in the suburb of Parish, 51 00:03:56,800 --> 00:04:02,040 Speaker 2: and we were to make it the world safe for democracy. 52 00:04:02,720 --> 00:04:04,119 Speaker 2: That was big slogan. 53 00:04:05,040 --> 00:04:08,680 Speaker 1: That's Bernese. Many decades later, during an interview with the 54 00:04:08,720 --> 00:04:12,680 Speaker 1: BBC for the documentary The Century of the Self, that 55 00:04:12,800 --> 00:04:16,120 Speaker 1: trip to Paris that he took with President Woodrow Wilson 56 00:04:16,400 --> 00:04:20,400 Speaker 1: was really eye opening for Bernese. He realized that he 57 00:04:20,560 --> 00:04:23,839 Speaker 1: and the rest of the US propaganda team had effectively 58 00:04:23,839 --> 00:04:27,320 Speaker 1: turned Wilson from a sort of cold elitist into a 59 00:04:27,360 --> 00:04:32,719 Speaker 1: populist hero, and had completely convinced everyone that their sole 60 00:04:32,920 --> 00:04:37,000 Speaker 1: goal in the war was spreading democracy around the world. 61 00:04:38,160 --> 00:04:42,880 Speaker 1: In other words, the propaganda worked, but Bernese's first challenge 62 00:04:42,920 --> 00:04:46,160 Speaker 1: in getting his ideas accepted would be a rebranding of 63 00:04:46,320 --> 00:04:47,800 Speaker 1: propaganda itself. 64 00:04:48,360 --> 00:04:53,360 Speaker 2: When I came back to the United States, I decided 65 00:04:54,560 --> 00:04:59,040 Speaker 2: that if you could use propaganda for WAH, you could 66 00:04:59,040 --> 00:05:04,359 Speaker 2: certainly use it for peace. And propagan they got to 67 00:05:04,400 --> 00:05:08,720 Speaker 2: be a bad word because of the German usual. So 68 00:05:08,960 --> 00:05:11,919 Speaker 2: what I did I was to try to find some 69 00:05:12,120 --> 00:05:15,400 Speaker 2: other words. So we found a way to counsel on 70 00:05:15,480 --> 00:05:16,560 Speaker 2: public relationship. 71 00:05:16,839 --> 00:05:21,320 Speaker 1: Council on public relations, that's what Bernese called what he 72 00:05:21,520 --> 00:05:24,120 Speaker 1: and others were doing. He borrowed the label from the 73 00:05:24,240 --> 00:05:27,120 Speaker 1: legal realm, which at the time referred to lawyers as 74 00:05:27,240 --> 00:05:30,440 Speaker 1: counsel on legal affairs. Now by this point Ivy Lee 75 00:05:30,600 --> 00:05:34,040 Speaker 1: had long since established his firm, but it was bernes 76 00:05:34,120 --> 00:05:38,159 Speaker 1: who branded the whole industry and pushed to professionalize it. 77 00:05:38,360 --> 00:05:40,640 Speaker 1: That's why I'll sometimes here I'm referred to as the 78 00:05:40,800 --> 00:05:45,599 Speaker 1: father of modern pr Bernese had specialized in film during 79 00:05:45,600 --> 00:05:48,279 Speaker 1: the war, and that's where he concentrated much of his 80 00:05:48,480 --> 00:05:52,560 Speaker 1: peacetime efforts too. We have Berneze to thank for product placement, 81 00:05:52,640 --> 00:05:56,880 Speaker 1: for example, and for the celebrity endorsement. When President Calvin 82 00:05:56,920 --> 00:06:01,080 Speaker 1: Coolidge was developing a reputation as a humorless lump, he 83 00:06:01,240 --> 00:06:05,080 Speaker 1: brought in Burnas and Bernese brought a bunch of celebrities 84 00:06:05,120 --> 00:06:08,919 Speaker 1: to the White House to have breakfast with Coolidge, and sadly, 85 00:06:09,000 --> 00:06:12,000 Speaker 1: that's all it took to make him electable. So yeah, 86 00:06:12,080 --> 00:06:15,359 Speaker 1: Bernez is the guy behind politicians getting into the PR 87 00:06:15,440 --> 00:06:19,359 Speaker 1: game two, first with Wilson, then Coolidge, and he worked 88 00:06:19,360 --> 00:06:22,120 Speaker 1: with Hoover II. Bernez was also the first to create 89 00:06:22,240 --> 00:06:27,800 Speaker 1: fake independent studies to sway consumers and entire fake news 90 00:06:27,880 --> 00:06:32,080 Speaker 1: agencies to lend credibility to his stories. But of course 91 00:06:32,120 --> 00:06:35,720 Speaker 1: Bernez is real genius Leay in taking what he had 92 00:06:35,800 --> 00:06:39,080 Speaker 1: learned growing up around that dinner table and applying it 93 00:06:39,120 --> 00:06:42,880 Speaker 1: to mass manipulation of the public. When Ivy Lee died, 94 00:06:42,960 --> 00:06:46,960 Speaker 1: Burnees inherited a lot of his clients, including the Rockefellers 95 00:06:47,000 --> 00:06:51,240 Speaker 1: and Standard Oil and the American Tobacco Company. Lee had 96 00:06:51,240 --> 00:06:55,120 Speaker 1: helped the company establish Lucky Strikes in Europe, vastly expanding 97 00:06:55,160 --> 00:06:58,040 Speaker 1: their customer base, but now they were looking to grow 98 00:06:58,040 --> 00:07:01,440 Speaker 1: it further. Here's Bernee talking about how he did that 99 00:07:01,560 --> 00:07:05,280 Speaker 1: for them and sounding very pleased with himself. 100 00:07:06,360 --> 00:07:11,400 Speaker 2: One day, mister George Hill, present the American Tobacco Company, 101 00:07:12,160 --> 00:07:15,320 Speaker 2: called me in and said, we're losing half of our market. 102 00:07:15,400 --> 00:07:18,400 Speaker 2: And I said, why, mister Hill. He said, there's a 103 00:07:18,480 --> 00:07:23,760 Speaker 2: taboo by men that does not permit women to smoke. 104 00:07:24,360 --> 00:07:29,160 Speaker 2: What can we do about breaking down that taboo? I said, 105 00:07:29,800 --> 00:07:33,360 Speaker 2: have I your permission to see a psychoanalyst? He said what? 106 00:07:33,560 --> 00:07:37,640 Speaker 2: At costs? I went to doctor Brill and asked him 107 00:07:38,440 --> 00:07:43,800 Speaker 2: what cigarettes meant to women, and he answered very quickly, 108 00:07:44,640 --> 00:07:50,600 Speaker 2: cigarettes are torches of freedom to women. They want to 109 00:07:50,640 --> 00:07:58,760 Speaker 2: smoke to dramatize man's taboo against women. And then he added, 110 00:07:59,000 --> 00:08:04,480 Speaker 2: as an afterthought, and they titillate the orogenous zones of 111 00:08:04,520 --> 00:08:09,560 Speaker 2: the lips. What could I do with that information? Freedom 112 00:08:09,600 --> 00:08:13,760 Speaker 2: of the Spirit Easter Sunday, and it occurred to me 113 00:08:15,080 --> 00:08:19,720 Speaker 2: that any young debutante who was aware of the times 114 00:08:20,320 --> 00:08:25,480 Speaker 2: and of herself as a woman being discriminated against, would 115 00:08:25,520 --> 00:08:30,160 Speaker 2: be delighted to walk in the Easter parade with her 116 00:08:30,240 --> 00:08:38,679 Speaker 2: bow to dramatize the idea that cigarettes were indeed tortures 117 00:08:38,720 --> 00:08:44,439 Speaker 2: of freedom and to invalidate the taboo against women smoking. 118 00:08:45,280 --> 00:08:49,040 Speaker 2: So I called up a debut friend of mine, asked 119 00:08:49,200 --> 00:08:53,680 Speaker 2: to get another friend and two young men whom they liked, 120 00:08:54,520 --> 00:08:59,560 Speaker 2: and they I also instructed them on how to give 121 00:08:59,640 --> 00:09:05,439 Speaker 2: inform about what they did to the newsreels, weekly newsreels, 122 00:09:06,040 --> 00:09:11,440 Speaker 2: to the newspapers, to the three important press associations, and 123 00:09:11,640 --> 00:09:15,520 Speaker 2: to walk from thirty fourth Street to fifty seventh and 124 00:09:15,720 --> 00:09:20,880 Speaker 2: back and back and forth, lighting tortues of freedom to 125 00:09:21,040 --> 00:09:27,320 Speaker 2: protest man's inhumanity to women. Next morning, there wasn't a 126 00:09:27,360 --> 00:09:31,600 Speaker 2: newspaper in the United States. Even the New York Times 127 00:09:31,640 --> 00:09:36,680 Speaker 2: had a front page story debutants light tortures of freedom. 128 00:09:37,480 --> 00:09:41,360 Speaker 2: The interesting thing to me was that within three days 129 00:09:42,040 --> 00:09:48,080 Speaker 2: the newspapers, without any intercession on my part, published accounts 130 00:09:48,679 --> 00:09:53,920 Speaker 2: that women were smoking in Union Square in San Francisco, 131 00:09:54,040 --> 00:09:58,800 Speaker 2: in Union Square in Denver, and on the Bosson Commons. 132 00:09:59,400 --> 00:10:05,160 Speaker 2: And to my surprise, within six weeks on their own, 133 00:10:05,520 --> 00:10:10,319 Speaker 2: without any indecision on my pot, the meek of Theaters, 134 00:10:10,880 --> 00:10:15,439 Speaker 2: which had a ban on women smoking in the smoking 135 00:10:15,559 --> 00:10:19,960 Speaker 2: rooms under the orchestras of every good theater in New York, 136 00:10:20,720 --> 00:10:24,520 Speaker 2: lifted the ban and women were allowed to smoke. 137 00:10:25,360 --> 00:10:28,400 Speaker 1: There's a video that goes along with this interview, and 138 00:10:28,600 --> 00:10:32,400 Speaker 1: in it, Berde's is just completely smirking. At the end. 139 00:10:33,880 --> 00:10:36,720 Speaker 1: This stunt had all of his signature moves in it. 140 00:10:37,040 --> 00:10:40,640 Speaker 1: A fake event to create news. He was really big 141 00:10:40,679 --> 00:10:43,840 Speaker 1: on this, the idea that companies should be creating news 142 00:10:43,880 --> 00:10:46,520 Speaker 1: to feed to the media, not just letting the media 143 00:10:46,679 --> 00:10:50,240 Speaker 1: cover whatever was actually happening. Then there was the co 144 00:10:50,320 --> 00:10:54,560 Speaker 1: opting of a movement that was already underway. Women and 145 00:10:54,720 --> 00:10:59,040 Speaker 1: especially suffragettes, were annoyed at the power that men had 146 00:10:59,080 --> 00:11:01,679 Speaker 1: over their lives. Bernez just had to find a way 147 00:11:01,720 --> 00:11:05,120 Speaker 1: to plug his client's products into that. And finally, the 148 00:11:05,160 --> 00:11:09,360 Speaker 1: psychological component, the tying of cigarettes not only to freedom, 149 00:11:09,480 --> 00:11:14,560 Speaker 1: but also to various Freudian ideas about buried desires. Bernez 150 00:11:14,720 --> 00:11:18,559 Speaker 1: offered a slightly tame version in the interview we just heard, 151 00:11:18,720 --> 00:11:21,880 Speaker 1: but in various other interviews and essays that he wrote, 152 00:11:22,440 --> 00:11:27,000 Speaker 1: he delved into that other classic Freudian idea that ultimately 153 00:11:27,240 --> 00:11:31,559 Speaker 1: women are just endlessly frustrated by their lack of penises. 154 00:11:32,080 --> 00:11:35,400 Speaker 1: Cigarettes had already become a sort of phallic symbol associated 155 00:11:35,400 --> 00:11:38,760 Speaker 1: with masculinity. All Berneze had to do was encourage women 156 00:11:38,800 --> 00:11:42,360 Speaker 1: to harness that energy for themselves, and as you just 157 00:11:42,480 --> 00:11:46,120 Speaker 1: heard there, it totally worked. Not only did the American 158 00:11:46,200 --> 00:11:50,000 Speaker 1: Tobacco Company sell more cigarettes, but women truly embraced the 159 00:11:50,080 --> 00:11:54,760 Speaker 1: idea of smoking as somehow liberating, which is kind of 160 00:11:54,840 --> 00:11:57,080 Speaker 1: sad when you think about the fact that it was 161 00:11:57,240 --> 00:12:00,240 Speaker 1: just an idea cooked up by a guy trying to 162 00:12:00,360 --> 00:12:05,160 Speaker 1: sell cigarettes. Related, Bernese can also be credited with sexualizing 163 00:12:05,200 --> 00:12:07,960 Speaker 1: the car and attaching it to masculinity. 164 00:12:08,679 --> 00:12:10,760 Speaker 4: It seems so much longer than last year. 165 00:12:10,880 --> 00:12:17,040 Speaker 2: It is nearly province is longer in some models. Oh. 166 00:12:17,360 --> 00:12:21,080 Speaker 1: By the nineteen forties, Berneise was influencing how every industry 167 00:12:21,160 --> 00:12:24,280 Speaker 1: dealt with and saw the public. In nineteen forty six, 168 00:12:24,400 --> 00:12:27,880 Speaker 1: Earl Newsome, the internal PR guy at Standard Oil who 169 00:12:27,920 --> 00:12:30,960 Speaker 1: had worked with Bernaise there and also at General Motors, 170 00:12:31,120 --> 00:12:34,040 Speaker 1: explained to other execs what they needed to be doing. 171 00:12:34,240 --> 00:12:37,960 Speaker 1: The clear noteworthy image thrown upon the screen must be 172 00:12:38,040 --> 00:12:40,760 Speaker 1: one of portraying our company as wanting the things that 173 00:12:40,840 --> 00:12:44,520 Speaker 1: people want, he said. There must be a merging of 174 00:12:44,640 --> 00:12:48,240 Speaker 1: image and audience. If people are to say that's my 175 00:12:48,480 --> 00:12:52,240 Speaker 1: kind of company. The image cannot be one of human exploitation, 176 00:12:52,679 --> 00:12:56,080 Speaker 1: of ruthlessness, of greed, of selfishness. It must be a 177 00:12:56,200 --> 00:13:00,439 Speaker 1: human image. It must reveal a company as an organization 178 00:13:00,600 --> 00:13:04,440 Speaker 1: of human beings. For you see, we are asking people 179 00:13:04,559 --> 00:13:08,800 Speaker 1: to join our crowd. They who want so much to 180 00:13:08,920 --> 00:13:13,160 Speaker 1: join a crowd. It's so condescending toward the public, but 181 00:13:13,320 --> 00:13:17,320 Speaker 1: also it worked. I found an old episode of Bill 182 00:13:17,400 --> 00:13:21,160 Speaker 1: Moyer's show where he covers Ivy Lee and Edward Berneze, 183 00:13:21,480 --> 00:13:24,360 Speaker 1: and of course, right up top there was this. 184 00:13:24,800 --> 00:13:29,000 Speaker 2: In keeping with Chevron's tradition of service throughout the twentieth century, 185 00:13:29,600 --> 00:13:32,920 Speaker 2: the people of Chevron bring you this program in support 186 00:13:33,080 --> 00:13:34,120 Speaker 2: of public television. 187 00:13:34,840 --> 00:13:38,880 Speaker 1: It's almost exactly what Newsome was talking about in his presentation, 188 00:13:39,240 --> 00:13:41,840 Speaker 1: the people of Chevron bring you this show as part 189 00:13:41,880 --> 00:13:44,640 Speaker 1: of our commitment to public service. At the end of 190 00:13:44,679 --> 00:13:48,200 Speaker 1: this interview, Moyers asked Berneze about power. 191 00:13:49,040 --> 00:13:51,880 Speaker 2: You know, you got men like Thomas Edison and Henry 192 00:13:51,920 --> 00:13:56,520 Speaker 2: Ford and Herbert Hoover and the masses of America to 193 00:13:56,600 --> 00:13:58,880 Speaker 2: do what you wanted them to do. Well, I mean, 194 00:13:58,920 --> 00:14:03,200 Speaker 2: that's not influence power. Well, but to see, I never 195 00:14:03,320 --> 00:14:07,680 Speaker 2: thought of it as power. I never treated it as power. 196 00:14:08,840 --> 00:14:14,840 Speaker 2: People want to go where they want to be led. 197 00:14:16,120 --> 00:14:19,080 Speaker 1: The thing is, as you've probably gathered from the various 198 00:14:19,160 --> 00:14:24,360 Speaker 1: examples listed here, Bernez basically looked down on the unwashed masses, 199 00:14:24,680 --> 00:14:27,480 Speaker 1: and he was pretty obsessed with power. He loved being 200 00:14:27,480 --> 00:14:29,840 Speaker 1: able to get the public to do his bidding, and 201 00:14:29,880 --> 00:14:32,920 Speaker 1: he loved the individual power and wealth that that brought him. 202 00:14:33,120 --> 00:14:36,920 Speaker 1: Here's one of his early colleagues, Patrick Jackson, in the 203 00:14:36,920 --> 00:14:38,840 Speaker 1: Century of the Self documentary. 204 00:14:39,560 --> 00:14:45,000 Speaker 5: He was uniquely knowledgeable about how people in large numbers 205 00:14:45,040 --> 00:14:50,320 Speaker 5: are going to react to products and ideas. But in 206 00:14:50,960 --> 00:14:53,040 Speaker 5: political terms, if he were to go out so I 207 00:14:53,080 --> 00:14:55,720 Speaker 5: can't imagine that he could get three people stand and listen. 208 00:14:56,400 --> 00:15:00,320 Speaker 5: Wasn't particularly articulate, was a kind of funny looking, and 209 00:15:00,480 --> 00:15:03,240 Speaker 5: didn't have any sense of reaching out for people one 210 00:15:03,240 --> 00:15:06,640 Speaker 5: on one, none at all. He didn't talk about didn't 211 00:15:06,720 --> 00:15:10,320 Speaker 5: think about people in groups of one, thought about people 212 00:15:10,360 --> 00:15:12,080 Speaker 5: in groups of thousands. 213 00:15:13,040 --> 00:15:15,080 Speaker 1: And here's Bernice's daughter Anne. 214 00:15:15,560 --> 00:15:19,320 Speaker 4: He knows everybody, knows the mayor, and he knows the senator, 215 00:15:19,400 --> 00:15:23,560 Speaker 4: and he calls politicians on the telephone as if he 216 00:15:23,640 --> 00:15:28,160 Speaker 4: did get literally a high or a bang out of 217 00:15:29,760 --> 00:15:33,280 Speaker 4: doing what he did. And that's fine, but it can 218 00:15:33,320 --> 00:15:36,560 Speaker 4: be a little hard on the people around you, especially 219 00:15:36,600 --> 00:15:40,640 Speaker 4: when you make other people feel stupid. People who worked 220 00:15:40,640 --> 00:15:45,240 Speaker 4: for him were stupid. Children were stupid. And if people 221 00:15:45,280 --> 00:15:48,240 Speaker 4: did things in a way that he didn't that he 222 00:15:48,240 --> 00:15:51,520 Speaker 4: wouldn't have done them. They were stupid. That it was 223 00:15:51,560 --> 00:15:53,600 Speaker 4: a word that he used over and over and over, 224 00:15:53,840 --> 00:15:58,480 Speaker 4: dope and stupid. They were stupid. 225 00:15:59,440 --> 00:16:02,800 Speaker 1: Like most of the white male public intellectuals of his day, 226 00:16:03,320 --> 00:16:07,120 Speaker 1: Bernese believed that democracy could only really work if you 227 00:16:07,160 --> 00:16:10,640 Speaker 1: could control the masses, that what you really needed was 228 00:16:10,680 --> 00:16:13,800 Speaker 1: a small group of elites still calling the shots, and 229 00:16:13,880 --> 00:16:15,920 Speaker 1: a way to get the public to go along with 230 00:16:16,000 --> 00:16:20,360 Speaker 1: it without realizing it wasn't totally their idea. Berneese was 231 00:16:20,400 --> 00:16:25,120 Speaker 1: also an idealogue. He firmly believed that capitalism and patriotism 232 00:16:25,120 --> 00:16:28,080 Speaker 1: were inherently intertwined and needed to stay that way. 233 00:16:29,040 --> 00:16:30,360 Speaker 4: You know why. 234 00:16:32,560 --> 00:16:42,320 Speaker 6: There's no sun up in the sky, stormy weather. I myself. 235 00:16:43,320 --> 00:16:46,160 Speaker 3: A new deal for the people. 236 00:16:48,200 --> 00:16:52,480 Speaker 1: When Franklin Roosevelt pushed forward the New Deal, effectively ending 237 00:16:52,520 --> 00:16:59,000 Speaker 1: the Depression, Bernese and most of America's corporate executives freaked out. 238 00:16:59,440 --> 00:17:02,960 Speaker 1: The masses were not behaving the way they were supposed to, 239 00:17:03,360 --> 00:17:05,680 Speaker 1: and the task of getting them in line was put 240 00:17:05,720 --> 00:17:08,560 Speaker 1: to Bernese. He was tapped to lead the vision of 241 00:17:08,600 --> 00:17:11,960 Speaker 1: the World's Fair in New York in nineteen thirty nine, 242 00:17:12,200 --> 00:17:15,840 Speaker 1: and what he built was a capitalist utopia constructed by 243 00:17:15,840 --> 00:17:20,919 Speaker 1: none other than his client, General Motors. Here's Anne Bernese again, to. 244 00:17:20,800 --> 00:17:26,400 Speaker 4: My father, the World's Fair was an opportunity to keep 245 00:17:26,440 --> 00:17:32,480 Speaker 4: the status quo, that is capitalism in a democracy. Democracy 246 00:17:32,880 --> 00:17:39,359 Speaker 4: and capitalism that marriage. He did that by manipulating people 247 00:17:39,880 --> 00:17:44,160 Speaker 4: and getting them to think that you couldn't have real 248 00:17:44,240 --> 00:17:50,200 Speaker 4: democracy in anything but a capitalist society which was capable 249 00:17:50,760 --> 00:17:57,520 Speaker 4: of doing anything, of creating these wonderful highways, of making 250 00:17:58,280 --> 00:18:03,440 Speaker 4: moving pictures inside everybody house of telephones that didn't need 251 00:18:03,560 --> 00:18:07,480 Speaker 4: cores of sleek roadsters. I mean, it was there were, 252 00:18:07,520 --> 00:18:11,480 Speaker 4: it was, it was. It was consumerist. But at the 253 00:18:11,560 --> 00:18:15,400 Speaker 4: same time you inferred that in a funny way, democracy 254 00:18:15,440 --> 00:18:16,959 Speaker 4: and capitalism went together. 255 00:18:17,480 --> 00:18:22,199 Speaker 1: This idea that capitalism and democracy are inextricably linked is 256 00:18:22,240 --> 00:18:28,320 Speaker 1: still a cornerstone of fossil fuel propaganda today. Coming up, 257 00:18:28,400 --> 00:18:31,560 Speaker 1: we'll hear about another influencer who took both the concept 258 00:18:31,600 --> 00:18:35,520 Speaker 1: of American individuality and the notion that controlling a company's 259 00:18:35,560 --> 00:18:53,840 Speaker 1: fate meant controlling the masses to a whole new level. 260 00:18:53,880 --> 00:18:58,760 Speaker 1: Like Ivy Lee before him and Herbschmertz after him, Edward 261 00:18:58,840 --> 00:19:01,880 Speaker 1: Bernese was kind kind of flashy. He was the type 262 00:19:01,920 --> 00:19:04,399 Speaker 1: of guy that wore an ascot a lot, and he 263 00:19:04,520 --> 00:19:07,320 Speaker 1: was often in the news himself. He liked the attention 264 00:19:07,720 --> 00:19:10,239 Speaker 1: and he was proud of his accomplishments. But there are 265 00:19:10,240 --> 00:19:12,639 Speaker 1: two types of PR guys, the ones who liked to 266 00:19:12,720 --> 00:19:15,320 Speaker 1: be part of the story themselves and the ones who 267 00:19:15,359 --> 00:19:19,200 Speaker 1: think they can be most effective behind the scenes. William 268 00:19:19,200 --> 00:19:22,960 Speaker 1: Howard Chase was definitely the latter. Although he wrote books 269 00:19:23,000 --> 00:19:26,840 Speaker 1: and taught classes, Chase was almost never in the media himself, 270 00:19:27,240 --> 00:19:29,879 Speaker 1: and really for the first couple decades of his career 271 00:19:30,000 --> 00:19:34,080 Speaker 1: he wasn't necessarily a standout. He was successful, he'd been 272 00:19:34,119 --> 00:19:37,480 Speaker 1: a partner at some big firms, ran PR for advertising 273 00:19:37,520 --> 00:19:41,199 Speaker 1: giant McCann Ericksson, and then started his own firm, but 274 00:19:41,280 --> 00:19:43,760 Speaker 1: he didn't really seem like a visionary, didn't seem like 275 00:19:43,800 --> 00:19:45,800 Speaker 1: the kind of guy that was going to really change 276 00:19:45,960 --> 00:19:49,520 Speaker 1: public relations in the future. Then came the social movements 277 00:19:49,600 --> 00:19:52,240 Speaker 1: of the sixties and seventies, and like a lot of 278 00:19:52,280 --> 00:20:03,520 Speaker 1: other PR guys, Chase got fired up. First you had 279 00:20:03,640 --> 00:20:07,960 Speaker 1: Rachel Carson's Silent Spring in nineteen sixty two, and then 280 00:20:08,040 --> 00:20:11,040 Speaker 1: this guy became a major thorn in the side of 281 00:20:11,080 --> 00:20:12,240 Speaker 1: American business. 282 00:20:13,520 --> 00:20:17,359 Speaker 6: Business is not so much opposed to Marxism or communism 283 00:20:17,400 --> 00:20:21,240 Speaker 6: as they are to good old free enterprise, competitive business, 284 00:20:21,280 --> 00:20:25,160 Speaker 6: and consumer sovereignty. That's where really it gets them all worried. 285 00:20:26,240 --> 00:20:29,280 Speaker 6: One can imagine what would happen if people could see 286 00:20:29,440 --> 00:20:32,560 Speaker 6: what goes into their processed food products, or they could 287 00:20:32,560 --> 00:20:35,760 Speaker 6: see what frauds so many of the so called cleaners 288 00:20:36,080 --> 00:20:39,480 Speaker 6: and cleaning agents are and the kind of harm that's involved. 289 00:20:39,760 --> 00:20:42,200 Speaker 6: Or they could see the enormous price fixing that goes 290 00:20:42,200 --> 00:20:43,640 Speaker 6: on in the petroleum industry. 291 00:20:43,960 --> 00:20:47,560 Speaker 1: That's Ralph Nader in nineteen seventy five, years after his 292 00:20:47,640 --> 00:20:50,960 Speaker 1: book Unsafe at Any Speed had kicked off a nationwide 293 00:20:51,000 --> 00:20:54,280 Speaker 1: push for seatbelt laws and made him a constant target 294 00:20:54,359 --> 00:20:57,639 Speaker 1: of General motors. Around the time of this speech, the 295 00:20:57,680 --> 00:21:00,720 Speaker 1: country had also just experienced its law or just oil 296 00:21:00,800 --> 00:21:03,840 Speaker 1: spill off the coast of Santa Barbara, and Nader was 297 00:21:03,880 --> 00:21:04,600 Speaker 1: pissed about it. 298 00:21:05,119 --> 00:21:07,720 Speaker 6: You can destroy a beautiful spot on the West coast 299 00:21:07,840 --> 00:21:11,720 Speaker 6: called the Santa Barbara Offshore Area, and there hasn't been 300 00:21:12,200 --> 00:21:15,800 Speaker 6: any criminal prosecution or fine of the violators. There was 301 00:21:15,880 --> 00:21:18,600 Speaker 6: recently a million dollar fine imposed on Chevron for the 302 00:21:18,600 --> 00:21:21,919 Speaker 6: biggest oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. What is 303 00:21:21,960 --> 00:21:25,960 Speaker 6: that that's nothing. That's about an hour's gross revenue of 304 00:21:26,000 --> 00:21:26,880 Speaker 6: the parent company. 305 00:21:27,800 --> 00:21:31,520 Speaker 1: The modern environmental movement was growing increasingly loud, and the 306 00:21:31,560 --> 00:21:36,240 Speaker 1: idea of consumer rights consumer protection was really gaining traction. 307 00:21:36,960 --> 00:21:40,080 Speaker 1: That was the problem Howard Chase set out to solve. 308 00:21:40,560 --> 00:21:43,600 Speaker 1: What had happened, of course, was that activists had figured 309 00:21:43,640 --> 00:21:47,480 Speaker 1: out the old Bernese strategy and were deploying it themselves 310 00:21:47,840 --> 00:21:50,440 Speaker 1: on behalf of the public good that was never really 311 00:21:50,520 --> 00:21:54,679 Speaker 1: supposed to happen. In his book Issue Management, Chase complained 312 00:21:54,720 --> 00:22:01,359 Speaker 1: about quote coordinated anti establishment issue protagonists Ralph Nader types 313 00:22:01,400 --> 00:22:05,000 Speaker 1: who deployed emotional power to turn the passive middle into 314 00:22:05,119 --> 00:22:08,640 Speaker 1: activist foes. What companies had to do to fight back 315 00:22:08,680 --> 00:22:12,080 Speaker 1: against these forces, according to Chase, was to predict which 316 00:22:12,160 --> 00:22:16,919 Speaker 1: issues might face them in the future, and then control social, cultural, 317 00:22:17,000 --> 00:22:20,320 Speaker 1: and policy conditions to ensure that these issues would not 318 00:22:20,400 --> 00:22:24,280 Speaker 1: become a problem. In nineteen sixty nine, Chase gave what 319 00:22:24,320 --> 00:22:28,320 Speaker 1: would become a famous speech to the PR Society of America. 320 00:22:28,440 --> 00:22:32,199 Speaker 1: In it, he said companies needed quote managers of the mind, 321 00:22:32,720 --> 00:22:35,639 Speaker 1: and that's where PR came in. Instead of trying to 322 00:22:35,720 --> 00:22:38,800 Speaker 1: sell the public on the idea that a corporation's values 323 00:22:38,840 --> 00:22:42,720 Speaker 1: were aligned with their own. Chase argued that pr professionals 324 00:22:42,840 --> 00:22:46,440 Speaker 1: should be shifting those values to align with corporate interests, 325 00:22:46,840 --> 00:22:49,600 Speaker 1: and that they could do that by shaping culture and 326 00:22:49,680 --> 00:22:54,600 Speaker 1: public policy. Two years after giving this speech, Chase created 327 00:22:54,600 --> 00:22:58,159 Speaker 1: the ad that convinced America that packaging waste was the 328 00:22:58,240 --> 00:23:08,560 Speaker 1: fault of individual consumers and not industry. 329 00:23:10,160 --> 00:23:14,199 Speaker 3: Some people have a deep, abiding respect for the natural 330 00:23:14,240 --> 00:23:19,680 Speaker 3: beauty that was once this country, and some people don't. 331 00:23:21,720 --> 00:23:25,080 Speaker 3: People who stop pollution people can stop it. 332 00:23:28,600 --> 00:23:31,399 Speaker 1: In case you haven't seen it, this ad depicts a 333 00:23:31,480 --> 00:23:35,399 Speaker 1: Native American man in a canoe just being dismayed at 334 00:23:35,400 --> 00:23:39,159 Speaker 1: all the litter that's around him in a river and 335 00:23:39,200 --> 00:23:43,320 Speaker 1: then on the land, and it ends with some person 336 00:23:43,400 --> 00:23:46,320 Speaker 1: in a car throwing trash that lands at his feet, 337 00:23:46,640 --> 00:23:48,800 Speaker 1: and then a close up on his face with a 338 00:23:48,840 --> 00:23:52,440 Speaker 1: single tear coming down it. It's known as the quote 339 00:23:52,520 --> 00:23:56,960 Speaker 1: unquote crying Indian Ad, although it starred an Italian American 340 00:23:57,000 --> 00:24:00,880 Speaker 1: actor portraying a Native American man. In the decades since 341 00:24:00,920 --> 00:24:03,640 Speaker 1: it was released, this ad has become one of the 342 00:24:03,680 --> 00:24:08,760 Speaker 1: most cited examples of greenwashing and corporate propaganda. It was 343 00:24:08,800 --> 00:24:12,120 Speaker 1: put out as a public service announcement, which you would 344 00:24:12,119 --> 00:24:15,760 Speaker 1: think is just funded by nonprofits who care about the environment, 345 00:24:15,840 --> 00:24:18,800 Speaker 1: but in actual fact it was paid for by packaging companies. 346 00:24:19,240 --> 00:24:21,760 Speaker 1: The ad did get a few critics, but it mostly 347 00:24:21,800 --> 00:24:25,080 Speaker 1: achieved what Chase set out to do. It reframed the 348 00:24:25,119 --> 00:24:29,440 Speaker 1: idea of pollution in consumer's minds from a systemic problem 349 00:24:29,640 --> 00:24:33,199 Speaker 1: caused by mass production and a lack of regulation to 350 00:24:33,280 --> 00:24:41,879 Speaker 1: an individual one, litterbugs. Chase began pushing for companies to 351 00:24:42,000 --> 00:24:46,520 Speaker 1: hire not just PR directors but also issue management specialists. 352 00:24:46,840 --> 00:24:50,200 Speaker 1: He started newsletters and eventually even started a trade group 353 00:24:50,240 --> 00:24:54,080 Speaker 1: for this new profession called the Issue Management Association. His 354 00:24:54,200 --> 00:24:57,720 Speaker 1: ideas took hold fairly quickly, and within a few years 355 00:24:57,720 --> 00:25:01,840 Speaker 1: most companies were hiring issue management. By the mid eighties, 356 00:25:01,920 --> 00:25:06,080 Speaker 1: the ground had shifted again from activists using the propaganda 357 00:25:06,119 --> 00:25:09,600 Speaker 1: techniques of corporations to fight for the public good to 358 00:25:09,680 --> 00:25:14,359 Speaker 1: companies redefining what the public good was and positioning themselves 359 00:25:14,440 --> 00:25:26,520 Speaker 1: as the activist fighting for it. Next time, we'll meet 360 00:25:26,560 --> 00:25:31,560 Speaker 1: another secret force engineering the public interest. John Hill. Like 361 00:25:31,640 --> 00:25:33,800 Speaker 1: a lot of our madmen, Hill started out as a 362 00:25:33,880 --> 00:25:37,960 Speaker 1: journalist before making his way into PR, and he worked 363 00:25:38,000 --> 00:25:46,960 Speaker 1: for you guessed at both tobacco and oil. Drilled is 364 00:25:47,000 --> 00:25:51,439 Speaker 1: part of the Critical Frequency podcast Network. The show is reported, written, 365 00:25:51,480 --> 00:25:55,119 Speaker 1: and produced by me Amy Westerbelt. Julia Richie is our editor. 366 00:25:55,320 --> 00:25:58,879 Speaker 1: Our managing producer is Katie Ross. She also created this 367 00:25:59,000 --> 00:26:03,719 Speaker 1: season's incredible artwork, sound design, scoring and mixing by b Beman. 368 00:26:04,400 --> 00:26:07,960 Speaker 1: Rica Murphy is our editorial advisor. Neamula Chance is our 369 00:26:07,960 --> 00:26:11,600 Speaker 1: fact checker. Special thanks to our First Amendment Attorney, James 370 00:26:11,600 --> 00:26:15,520 Speaker 1: Wheaton and the First Amendment Project, Drilled is made possible 371 00:26:15,520 --> 00:26:17,840 Speaker 1: in part by a generous grant from the Institute for 372 00:26:17,960 --> 00:26:22,360 Speaker 1: Governance and Sustainable Development. We appreciate their support. You can 373 00:26:22,400 --> 00:26:26,639 Speaker 1: find Drilled on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you 374 00:26:26,680 --> 00:26:29,280 Speaker 1: get your podcasts. Don't forget to leave us a rating, 375 00:26:29,320 --> 00:26:31,960 Speaker 1: a review, It really helps the show, and you can 376 00:26:32,000 --> 00:26:35,080 Speaker 1: follow us on Twitter now at we are Drilled, and 377 00:26:35,200 --> 00:26:40,840 Speaker 1: visit our new website drillednews dot com for climate accountability reporting, newsletters, 378 00:26:40,920 --> 00:26:44,040 Speaker 1: and behind the scenes stories from this season. Thanks for 379 00:26:44,080 --> 00:26:45,520 Speaker 1: listening and we'll see you next time.