Edward Bernays: The Father Of Public Relations

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Most academics record the beginnings of Public Relations as being in the early 1900’s, however evidence of some form of Public Relations being practiced have been observed in the earliest of civilizations. The Greeks had a word for it: sematikos: meaning semantics, which can be defined as how to get people to believe things and do things. According to Edward Bernays, who is often referred to as being ‘the father’ of Public Relations, “The three main elements of public relations are practically as old as society: informing people, persuading people, or integrating people with people.” Edward Louis Bernays was born in Austria but later migrated to the United States; he was also the nephew of famous doctor and psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. Using…show more content…
However it was in 1923 that he penned and published his revolutionary book Crystallizing Public Opinion the first of several books and considered by most to be the blueprint for successful Public Relations practices. Other books written by Bernays include such titles as “Propaganda” and “The Engineering of Consent”. Edward Bernays is listed by time magazine as one of the 20th century’s 100 most influential people, while another one of Edward Bernays many notable achievements was that he perfected and universalized the use of the Press Release the Public Relations tool that is used even to this day. The press release was however conceptualized and ‘invented’ by another very influential person within the Public Relations field Mr Ivy…show more content…
Byoir created and structured one of the world's largest public relation firms. Byoir is rarely given the credit he deserves, but his work should be noted because he helped make public relations an accepted profession. While Byoir’s contribution is significant he did study and use some of the philosophies of Edward Bernays. In 1917 Byoir became a part of the Committee of Public Information (CPI), which publicly organized the United States objectives for World War I. It was during this he practiced and perfected many techniques to influence public opinion. Another campaign was with the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration, planning charity balls for the president and helping establishing the March of Dimes foundation. As an accomplished strategist of holding sway over and wielding public opinion, he used information to change the world. By raising awareness with small companies, multinational corporations, and the U.S. government, Byoir became a remarkably influential gatekeeper of the public
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