Propaganda

Bernays envisions a sort of partnership between business and the public and maintains that this relationship has become even more intertwined in recent years. Businesses realized that the relationship with the public extended beyond the manufacture and sale of products, which means that business must sell itself “and all of those things for which it stands” to the public (62). The reason for the increasingly important relationship between business and the public is based on the lessons learned from the muckraking period, wherein the public became aware of questionable business practices and sought to pass laws that would restrict business. Thus, for business to prosper, its affairs need to be clear to the public. Bernays sees business as conscious of the conscience of the public and sees this consciousness as a “healthy cooperation.”

Another reason for the increasingly important relationship between business and the public is the need to ensure a constant demand for products. Mass production must maintain continual output to remain profitable, which means that instead of demand creating supply, the supply must “actively seek to create its own demand” (63). Bernays contends that businesses can’t just wait for the public to demand products; rather, businesses must create a continuous demand for said products, which is facilitated by