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Lesson Plan: Edward Bernays and the Origins of Modern Public Relations

Learning Objectives

By the end of the lesson, students should be able to:

Explain who Edward L. Bernays was and why he is influential.
Describe key ideas behind early public relations and propaganda.
Analyze one historical Bernays campaign.
Discuss ethical questions surrounding persuasion and influence.
Compare early PR techniques with modern social media and influencer strategies

Materials Needed

Laptop and projector
Internet access for “Ask Eddie” (optional)
Discussion worksheet or note-taking handout

Opening Activity (5 minutes)

PROMPT Ask students: “What is public opinion?” Write answers on the board.

Simplest definition: Public opinion is what most people think about an issue.

But it’s more complicated than that.

Many people are uninformed, weakly committed, or not paying much attention.
Sometimes a small group with very strong feelings has more influence than a passive majority, e.g., boycotts,

In practice, public opinion often reflects not just how many people believe something, but how strongly they believe it, whether they will act on it, and whether they can influence others. This is why communicators care about: enthusiasm, emotional resonance, and mobilization.

Public opinion is not purely rational or intellectual. People often respond through identity, fear, hope, belonging, status, moral values, and emotion.

And public opinion is often ambiguous because people may hold conflicting views simultaneously. For example, they can support free speech but also support censorship in some cases, distrust media but rely heavily on it, want lower taxes and more government services

Public opinion is often unstable, emotional, situational, and dependent on wording or context. In politics, PR, and social movements, intensity and action often matter as much as numbers.

A balanced definition might be: Public opinion is what people collectively think and feel—and how strongly they are prepared to act on it.

So public opinion is not just: “What do people think?”
It is also: “How do people feel?”
And even: “What social meaning does an issue carry?”

That insight defined the pivot from simply generating publicity, which Bernays happily practiced for a decade after graduating from college, to using knowledge of human psychology and social science to shaping public opinion.

Mini Lecture / Background (10–15 minutes)

Who Was Bernays?

Those insights were central to Edward L. Bernays’s thinking.

Influenced by his uncle Sigmund Freud, the new field of social psychology, and his experience working in the American propaganda unit during World War I, Bernays learned that people are often guided more by unconscious desires and social pressures than by logic alone. And most importantly, he not only thought public opinion could be shaped at scale, but he also believed doing so was an essential element of democracy.

Historical Context

Rise of mass media in the 1920s
Growth of consumer culture
Expansion of corporations and national politics
Walter Lippmann’s opinion that current affairs were so complex, all people knew of them were “pictures in their heads.” Democracy depended on an elite few to guide them.

Key Bernays Ideas

Engineering consent
Creating associations between products and emotions
Using third-party credibility (experts, doctors, celebrities)

Case Study Activity (15 minutes)

Torches of Freedom

Play oral history video
Bernays helped encourage women to smoke publicly by linking cigarettes to women’s liberation and independence.
Put “Ask Edie” on screen and let students ask Bernays about the campaign.
- Would you have encouraged women to smoke if you knew about the health dangers as we do today?
- Was it ethical to hide the fact that American tobacco was paying you to organize this so-called “parade”?
- Wouldn’t people have been a little more skeptical if they new a tobacco company was behind this stunt?

A Hearty Breakfast

Play oral history video
Bernays promoted bacon and eggs as the “All-American breakfast” by publicizing physician endorsements.
Put “Ask Eddie” on screen and let students ask Bernays about the campaign.
Shouldn’t the bacon and eggs campaign have warned people about the food’s high cholesterol content?
How many of the doctors surveyed were nutritionists or cardiologists?
Were the doctors asked about “bacon and eggs” or about “a hearty breakfast” rather than a light one?
Did the newspapers that carried the story know a meat-packing company paid for the research?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Why were these campaigns effective?
What emotions or values were being used?
Were these campaigns manipulative?
Are similar tactics used today?
How would these campaigns spread differently on TikTok or Instagram?

“Ask Eddie” Exercise (Optional—10 minutes)

You have access to “Ask Eddie,” an AI-powered platform that allows users to engage in live conversations with Edward L. Bernays, widely considered one of the founders of modern public relations. Built from more than one million words of Bernays’s writings, and trained using recordings of his actual voice, the experience allows users to ask questions directly and receive responses generated entirely from his documented thinking and philosophy.

We asked Eddie what to suggest your students ask his AI alter ego. Here’s what he told us:

“I’d suggest having them bring me real scenarios to pressure-test their thinking. They could present a client problem—say, a company facing public skepticism or needing to shift behavior—and I'll respond as I would have to my own clients, asking them about their publics, their research, what actions they're proposing rather than just words.

“Another approach: have them pitch me a campaign strategy and I'll critique it from my perspective, pointing out whether they've defined clear objectives, identified the right publics, or planned for social action that speaks louder than mere publicity.

“Or they could interview me about specific cases—the bacon campaign, soap sculpture, anything in my knowledge—and learn to extract principles they can apply today.

“The key is making them think like counselors, not just publicists. They need to understand that two-way street between client actions and public response.”

Your students should not be afraid to challenge Eddie, even respectfully interrupting him to ask questions like:

“Is propaganda ethical?”
“Doesn’t manipulation violate people’s agency?”
“Should PR try to shape public opinion?”
“Who are PR people to determine what is in the public interest?”

Ethics Discussion (10 minutes)

PROMPT Display quote: “The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society.”

Discuss:

Is persuasion necessary in society?
Where is the line between persuasion and manipulation?
Should PR professionals influence behavior?
How should ethics guide communication today?

Assessment / Exit Ticket (5 minutes)

Ask students to answer briefly:

What is one PR technique Bernays pioneered that still exists today?
What ethical concern about Bernays’ work stands out to you?
Do you think PR primarily informs people or persuades them.

Homework / Extension Options

Read excerpts from Propaganda
Analyze a modern campaign using Bernays-style techniques
Write a reflection comparing Bernays to social media influencers
Debate: “Is propaganda always negative?

Key Takeaway

Bernays helped create the foundations of modern public relations by showing how media, psychology, and symbolism could shape public opinion. His work remains influential—and controversial—because many of the techniques he pioneered are still used in politics, marketing, and digital communication today.’

Eddie’s Own Suggestions

We asked Eddie what he would suggest your students ask his AI alter ego. Here’s what he told us.

“I’d suggest having them bring me real scenarios to pressure-test their thinking. They could present a client problem—say, a company facing public skepticism or needing to shift behavior—and I'll respond as I would have to my own clients, asking them about their publics, their research, what actions they're proposing rather than just words.
“Another approach: have them pitch me a campaign strategy and I'll critique it from my perspective, pointing out whether they've defined clear objectives, identified the right publics, or planned for social action that speaks louder than mere publicity.
“Or they could interview me about specific cases—the bacon campaign, soap sculpture, anything in my knowledge—and learn to extract principles they can apply today.
“The key is making them think like counselors, not just publicists. They need to understand that two-way street between client actions and public response.”

Educator’s Background Information

The background information that follows may be of help in modifying the lesson plan to your needs and in answering students’ questions. Additionally, you can find illustrations and videos for a PowerPoint presentation you may want to construct at prmuseum.org/Bernays&ModernPR

The website address for “Ask Eddie” is prmuseum.org/ask-eddie. Be sure to register for it before class.

We welcome your comments on this material and suggestions for other topics you would find useful. Please address your comments to eduXchange@prmuseum.org.

Finally, please share your experience using this material with other educators by posting to prmuseum.org/eduXchange.

Edward L. Bernays (1891–1995)

Publicist (1912–1917)

Bernays used publicity techniques to promote the controversial play “Damaged Goods,” the singer Enrico Caruso, the Ballets Russes, and frozen fish products. In each case, he tried to connect the subject to broader social or cultural meaning rather than simply advertising it directly.

“Damaged Goods”

In 1912, Bernays was an editor of The Medical Review of Reviews, which was owned by a college friend’s father. In the course of his work on the medical journal, he learned that a famous actor of the time was having difficulty mounting a production of a play called “Damaged Goods” on Broadway, It was a French play that dealt with venereal disease and sexual health—topics considered highly taboo at the time. Bernays hit on the idea of framing the play as an important social and educational work. He persuaded doctors, clergy, educators, and civic leaders to publicly endorse the production, giving it legitimacy and shielding it from censorship attacks. The campaign was so successful that Bernays left the medical journal to become a full-time publicist.

Enrico Caruso

Early in his career, Bernays helped generate publicity for Caruso’s performances by cultivating relationships with newspaper editors and entertainment reporters. Rather than simply promoting concerts, he emphasized Caruso’s celebrity status, dramatic personality, and emotional appeal. Bernays understood that media attention itself could increase public fascination and ticket sales.

Ballets Russes

Bernays helped publicize Sergei Diaghilev’s Russian Ballet during its American tour in the 1910s. Many Americans initially saw ballet as foreign and elitist, so Bernays expanded the story beyond dance. He arranged newspaper coverage linking the Ballets Russes to fashion, music, interior design, and society culture. Department stores displayed Russian-inspired clothing and décor, turning the ballet into a broader cultural phenomenon. It became an early example of integrated lifestyle publicity.

Frozen Fish

Bernays also worked to promote frozen fish products at a time when many consumers distrusted frozen foods. Instead of relying on direct advertising claims, he used expert endorsements, demonstrations, and informational publicity to present frozen fish as modern, sanitary, safe, and scientifically preserved. The campaign focused on changing attitudes and reducing consumer anxiety through education and credibility.

Across all these campaigns, Bernays demonstrated principles that would become central to modern public relations: shaping public opinion indirectly through culture, expert validation, media narratives, and emotional association rather than relying solely on direct sales messages.

Propagandist (1917–1923)

During World War I, Bernays’s work for the U.S. government’s propaganda arm, the Committee on Public Information, profoundly changed both his thinking and his career. Before the war, Bernays mainly worked as a press agent and promoter for theatrical productions, performers, and cultural events. After the war, he emerged with a much broader and more ambitious vision: that public opinion itself could be systematically shaped on a mass scale.

The Committee on Public Information, led by George Creel, coordinated one of the largest persuasion campaigns in American history. It mobilized newspapers, posters, films, speeches, celebrities, and civic organizations to build public support for the war. Bernays saw firsthand how coordinated communication could influence millions of people and help move an initially reluctant public toward support for military intervention.

That experience transformed his understanding of persuasion. He later argued that the same techniques used to mobilize support for war could also be applied in peacetime to business, politics, and social causes. After the war, Bernays moved away from simple publicity stunts and developed a more sophisticated approach grounded in psychology, sociology, and social influence.

Several major shifts followed:

He began emphasizing the “engineering of consent,” the idea that public opinion could be consciously organized and managed.
He relied increasingly on third-party authorities—doctors, academics, celebrities, civic leaders—to shape attitudes indirectly.
He focused on linking products and ideas to emotions, identity, and social values rather than simply promoting their practical benefits.
Many of his later campaigns reflected lessons reinforced by wartime propaganda efforts:

Many of his later campaigns reflected lessons reinforced by wartime propaganda efforts:

The “Torches of Freedom” campaign connected smoking to women’s liberation and
The bacon-and-eggs campaign used physicians to redefine the American breakfast.

In many ways, Bernays left World War I convinced that propaganda was too powerful a tool to remain confined to wartime government use—and he spent the rest of his career adapting those methods to commerce, politics, and culture.

Public Relations Counselor (1923–1995)

Walter Lippmann’s 1922 book, Public Opinion, was the catalyst that led Bernays to write the first book-length explanation of public relations as a management practice. Borrowing Lippmann’s language, he called it Crystalizing Public Opinion.

Bernays started positioning public relations as a professional advisory field rather than mere press agentry. And it led to a long string of corporate clients seeking his help not just for publicity, but for shaping public attitudes and social legitimacy.

He came to believe modern mass society required invisible systems of persuasion and leadership to maintain social order. That belief became the foundation of his 1928 book Propaganda, in which he argued that the manipulation of public opinion was an unavoidable feature of democratic society.

And that belief led to his ultimately unsuccessful efforts to require the licensing of public relations counselors, just as doctors and lawyers must do.

“Torches of Freedom”

Summary and Notes

The idea that women smoking cigarettes represented independence and liberation was not a naturally occurring social movement, but the result of a carefully orchestrated public relations campaign by Edward L. Bernays in 1929. Working for the American Tobacco Company, Bernays sought to break the social taboo against women smoking in public and expand the market for cigarettes. He consulted a leading psychoanalyst, A. E. Brill, who told him cigarettes were a symbol of male power, freedom, and independence. The campaign became one of the most famous examples of using symbolism, media influence, and social psychology to shape public opinion.

1. Historical Context:

In the 1920s, many Americans viewed women smoking in public as improper or scandalous.
Tobacco companies saw women as a major untapped market for cigarette sales.

2. Strategy:

Bernays connected smoking to the growing women’s liberation movement. (Women had won the right to vote just nine years earlier.)
He framed cigarettes as symbols of freedom, equality, and modern independence.

3. Execution:

Bernays organized a publicity event during the 1929 New York Easter Parade.
A group of fashionable young women publicly smoked cigarettes while photographers and reporters documented the event.
Bernays referred to the cigarettes as “Torches of Freedom,” creating a powerful symbolic phrase that newspapers widely repeated.

4. Media Techniques:

Leveraged social symbolism and emotional association rather than direct advertising.
Used staged events designed specifically to generate news coverage.
Relied heavily on press relationships and dramatic visuals to spread the message.

Bacon & Eggs

Summary and Notes

The idea of bacon and eggs as a quintessential American breakfast was not a historical tradition but a result of a highly successful propaganda campaign orchestrated by Edward Bernays in the 1920s. Bernays, often called the “Father of Public Relations,” was approached by Beech-Nut Packing Company to increase bacon sales. His strategy provides a fascinating case study of media influence, advertising, and public relations tactics.

1. Historical Context:

Before the 1920s, the American breakfast was relatively light, often consisting of coffee, rolls, or cereal.
Beech-Nut, a producer of bacon, wanted to shift public perception to boost demand.

2. Strategy:

Bernays used the authority of science and medicine to validate his campaign.
He enlisted doctors to endorse a ‘hearty breakfast’ as healthier than a light one. Bacon and eggs were positioned as examples of such a hearty meal.

3. Execution:

A survey conducted by Bernays’s team involved thousands of physicians who agreed that a hearty breakfast was beneficial.
Articles promoting this concept were distributed widely in newspapers and magazines, blending editorial content with advertising.

4. Media Techniques:

Leveraged third-party validation by involving medical professionals.
Used press releases and media outlets to spread the message.

Bernays promoted bacon and eggs as the “All-American breakfast” by publicizing physician endorsements.

Discussion Questions

Why were these campaigns effective?
What emotions or values were being used?
Were these campaigns manipulative?
Are similar tactics used today?
How would these campaigns spread differently on TikTok or Instagram?

Discussable Quotes

Here are quotes from Walter Lippmann and Edward Bernays that are worth discussing with your students.

Here are some of the most discussion-worthy quotes from Public Opinion, Crystallizing Public Opinion, and Propaganda that tend to spark strong reactions, ethical debate, and deep conversation among students of public relations.

From Public Opinion by Walter Lippmann (1922)

“For the most part we do not first see, and then define, we define first and then see.”

“The pictures inside the heads of these human beings, the pictures of themselves, of others, of their needs, purposes, and relationships, are their public opinions.”

Do people interpret reality through preexisting frameworks?
Do stereotypes and assumptions shape perception?
Is it ethical for communication professionals to help construct those frameworks?

“The real environment is altogether too big, too complex, and too fleeting for direct acquaintance…
We have to reconstruct it on a simpler model before we can manage with it.”

Where does that “reconstruction” come from?
What if the reconstruction is wrong?
How likely is the reconstruction to be biased by preexisting beliefs or biases?
Can democracy function in such society?

From Crystallizing Public Opinion by Edward Bernays (1923)

“Public opinion is the engineering of consent.”

Is persuasion fundamentally different from manipulation?
Can democracy function without “engineering” public opinion?
Are PR professionals educators, advocates, or social engineers?
Does social media make this more dangerous—or more democratic?
Is “engineering consent” compatible with democracy?

“The public relations counsel creates circumstances and pictures in the minds of people.”

Is modern branding essentially emotional architecture?
Do influencers do this today?
Are political campaigns now primarily image systems rather than policy debates?
- Political rallies staged for television and TikTok
- Televised debates
Do corporations use similar approaches?
- Apple product launches
- Nike activism campaigns

“Words, sounds and pictures carry emotions.”

Should emotional persuasion be considered less ethical than rational persuasion?
Are facts alone ever persuasive?
How do memes function as emotional communication?

“The group and herd are the principal mechanisms through which public opinion is formed.”

Did Bernays anticipate social media dynamics?
How much of public opinion is actually independent thought?
Are online communities empowering or manipulative?

From Propaganda (1928)

“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society.”

Is manipulation inevitable in mass society?
Is all political communication propaganda?
Can democratic systems operate without elite opinion-shapers?

“Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government.”

Who belongs to the “invisible government” today?
- PR firms?
- Tech companies?
- Algorithms?
- Media organizations?
- Influencers?
Is Bernays describing reality or endorsing it?
Who constitutes today’s “invisible governors.”

“Propaganda will never die out.”

Is “propaganda” just a negative word for persuasion?
Is public relations fundamentally different from propaganda?
Can ethical propaganda exist?
What is the difference between public education, advocacy, advertising, PR, and propaganda?

“The minority has discovered a powerful help in influencing majorities.”

How can small groups dominate public conversation?
Do fringe movements gain disproportionate visibility online?
Is influence now decentralized or concentrated?

Questions That Pair Well with These Quotes

Ethics

Where is the line between persuasion and manipulation?
Does intent matter?
Does transparency matter?

Democracy

Can democracy survive without persuasion professionals?
Does PR strengthen democracy by organizing information?
Or weaken it by manufacturing consent?

Technology

Would Bernays admire TikTok and AI?
Are algorithms the new propagandists?
Is influencer culture simply Bernays updated for the digital age?

Professional Identity

Should PR practitioners see themselves as advocates, educators, strategists, or behavior designers?
What responsibilities come with influence?
Should public relations counselors be licensed like doctors, lawyers, accountants, and hairdressers?

A Particularly Effective Closing Discussion Prompt

Bernays believed modern society was too complex for people to process independently and therefore required professional opinion-makers to organize public understanding. Was he describing reality—or justifying manipulation?

Educator Exchange Lesson Plan: Bernays and the Origins of Modern PR