Classroom Guide to Working with “Ask Eddie”

Teaching Tip

Frame “Ask Eddie” as a primary source encounter rather than a modern expert. Students are engaging with a historically situated thinker—one whose ideas shaped public relations but also reflect the norms and blind spots of his early years.

What Students—and Instructors—Should Know

  • Archival and authoritative. “Ask Eddie” is an AI persona of Edward Bernays built entirely from his recorded interviews and published writings. It is corpus-bound and does not generate opinions beyond that source material.

  • Authentic voice. Responses reflect Bernays’s own voice as captured in archival recordings, including his 1986 interviews.

  • Historically limited perspective. The system cannot draw on information beyond Bernays’s lifetime. Bernays died in 1995. It does not access or retrieve contemporary data.

  • Capable of hypothetical reasoning. While historically grounded, “Eddie” can respond to hypothetical scenarios, allowing students to explore current issues.

 Integrating “Ask Eddie” into Your Curriculum

“Ask Eddie” can be integrated into an introduction to public relations and courses on PR principles, ethics, strategic messaging, crisis management, communications marketing, and more.

Getting Started

  • Have students begin by clicking the microphone and introducing themselves.

  • Urge students to treat this as a real conversation, not just an information source. This works best as an interactive dialogue rather than a static Q&A.

  • They should feel comfortable:

    • Challenging Bernays’s ethical positions (e.g., smoking campaigns, promoting bacon, foreign policy influence).

    • Questioning some techniques like paid third parties, unscientific research.

  • The goal is to develop analytical thinking, not passive acceptance.

Suggested Lines of Inquiry

  • Personal and professional influences

    • His relationship with Sigmund Freud and the influence of social scientists and political thinkers.

    • Doris Fleischman’s role in his career and why she had to be a “silent partner.”

  • Evolution of public relations

    • How PR developed from the 1920s through the 1980s.

    • Changes in media, public opinion, and behavioral science.

  • Campaigns and clients

    • Reflections on work with figures such as Calvin Coolidge, Enrico Caruso, Henry Ford, and Thomas Edison

    • Strategy behind major campaigns

  • Retrospective views

    • His later-life assessment of public relations.

    • What he might revise or defend about his work.

About Edward Bernays

Edward Bernays (1891–1995), often called the father of public relations, helped shape how modern society communicates, markets, and persuades.

A nephew of Sigmund Freud on both his mother and father’s sides, Bernays drew heavily on Freud’s ideas about the unconscious mind, as well as insights developed by the new field of social science. He believed people are driven less by logic than by emotion, social identity, and hidden desires—and that these forces could be used to influence behavior.

Pioneering Campaigns

In the 1920s, Bernays created some of the first large-scale public relations campaigns:

  • Torches of Freedom: Linked smoking in public to women’s independence.

  • Bacon & Eggs: Promoted the idea of a “hearty” American breakfast.

  • Ivory Soap: Connected a household product to children’s creativity.

Bernays showed how products could be tied to identity, values, and culture—not just function.

He was particularly influenced by his participation in the Committee of Public Information during World War I, which convinced him that people’s attitudes and opinions could be influenced and doing so was necessary in a complex, mass society.

Key Collaborator

Bernays worked closely with his wife, Doris Fleischman, a journalist and writer who played a significant role in shaping his campaigns and ideas, though she often received less public recognition.

Selected Clients & Work

Corporate

  • American Tobacco Company: Torches of Freedom

  • Beech-Nut Packing Company: Bacon & Eggs

  • Procter & Gamble: Ivory Soap campaigns

  • General Electric: Corporate leadership and public education

  • CBS: Promoting radio and cultural legitimacy

  • Dodge Motors: Automotive positioning

  • United Fruit Company: Public relations tied to Guatemala (controversial)’

  • Cheney Brothers: Promote U.S.-manufactured silk

Government & Institutional

  • Involved in President Calvin Coolidge’s public image and reelection efforts

  • Influenced U.S. perceptions of Guatemala in the 1950s

  • National Association of Manufacturers: pro-business messaging during Depression

  • American Dental Association: Public health campaigns

  • U.S. Public Health Service: Health communication initiatives

PR as “Time Travel” Through the 20th Century

Bernays’s career traces the evolution of modern communication:

  • World War I → Rise of organized propaganda

  • 1920s consumer culture → Psychology enters marketing

  • Great Depression / New Deal → Trust, authority, mass reassurance

  • World War II → Institutionalized persuasion

  • Cold War → Ideology as narrative strategy

  • Guatemala → Public relations as geopolitical force

Legacy

Bernays helped establish the foundation of modern public relations, advertising, and media strategy. His work continues to shape how organizations communicate—and raises enduring questions about ethics, influence, and the power of persuasion. 

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