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Famed as "the father of public relations," Edward Bernays pioneered the technique of working to change attitudes rather than just selling products. In this 1923 classic, the first book ever written about the public relations industry, he delineates the approaches that corporations and governments have taken for the past century to influence social tendencies.
Crystallizing Public Opinion identifies the techniques employed by public relations professionals, from authoritative-sounding surveys to persuasive endorsements from opinion leaders, celebrities, and experts. Bernays — whose high-profile clients included Procter & Gamble, General Electric, CBS, NBC, and Time, Inc. — cites examples from his successful campaigns, including a physician-endorsed promotion of bacon as a healthy breakfast option. He quotes leading theorists on the role of herd mentality in the minds of the educated as well as the ignorant, and he explains the value of communicating the right facts at the right time to a targeted audience. Although technology has changed in the years since this book's debut, human nature has not, and these principles remain of timeless value to business and marketing professionals, students of public relations, and other readers.

Edward Bernays (1891–1995) was a pioneer in the field of public relations who emigrated from his native Austria to the United States in the 1930s. During his career in public relations, Bernays devised and popularized many techniques for influencing public opinion on behalf of a huge roster of clients that included many corporations and industrial organizations, governments around the world, and advocacy groups in many fields. "Public relations, effectively used, helps validate an underlying principle of our society — competition in the market place of ideas and things," he wrote in 1971.

Part I: Scope and Functions
I. The Scope of the Public Relations Counsel
II. The Public Relations Counsel; The Increased and Increasing Importance of the Profession
III. The Function of a Special Pleader

Part II: The Group and Herd
I. What Constitutes Public Opinion
II. Is Public Opinion Stubborn or Malleable?
III. The Interaction of Public Opinion with the Forces that Help Make It
IV. The Power of Interacting Forces that Go to Make up Public Opinion
V. An Understanding of the Fundamentals of Public Motivation is Necessary to the Work of the Public Relations Counsel
VI. The Group and Herd are the Basic Mechanisms of Public Change
VII. The Application of these Principles

Part III: Technique and Method
I. The Public Can be Reached Only Through Established Mediums of Communication
II. The Interlapping Group Formations of Society, the Continuous Shifting of Groups, Changing Conditions, and the Flexibility of Human Nature are All Aids to the Counsel of Public Relations
III. An Outlining of Methods Practicable in Modifying the Point of View of a Group

Part IV: Ethical Relations
I. A Consideration of the Press and Other Mediums of Communication in Their Relation to the Public Relations Counsel
II. His Obligation to the Public as a Special Pleader

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Crystallizing Public Opinion

Crystallizing Public Opinion

0486836584

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

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