Beware Of Propagand Edward Bernays And Erich Fromm
1333 Words6 Pages
Beware of Propaganda
Edward Bernays and Erich Fromm both published books discussing the effects of propaganda and advertising. Through their opinions on propaganda and advertising, I was able to link that to the individual and their relationship within their societal groups. Erich Fromm lists multiple, negative things that propaganda creates and eventually propaganda creates a negative domino affect. First, it targets the individual and his/her opinion, next it creates a consensus amongst all individual opinions, until finally the process has come full circle and a social psychology is formed. Edward Bernays defines propaganda and how the public relations counsel targets it at individuals. Additionally, propaganda extorts the individual’s human nature. Propaganda can unnaturally extort human nature by forcing the individual man to join a crowd mentality. The use of propaganda in today’s society undoubtedly initiates a negative social psychology and a crowd mentality. The formation of both of these link the modern day individual to his/her societal groups.…show more content… His book, Escape from Freedom, states modern day propaganda appeals to the emotion, rather than the reason of the individual or consumer (Fromm 127). For example, modern day advertising repeats the same formula, authority figure, and sex appeal tactics to make consumers form a positive opinion and eventually their product. So when Brett Farve goes on television and says, “I use Micro-touch Groomer; you should too!” the individual’s opinion is immediately suppressed to accept Brett Farve as an authority figure, because what man doesn’t respect Brett Farve? The dangerous use of modern day advertising, such as the Brett Farve commercial, is an example of advertising and propaganda eventually becoming engrained into the society’s