ModernGeek

I recently watched a BBC documentary titled 'Century of the Self', which talks about how all marketing is not presenting the view 'you need this' but 'you want this'. Apparently, the first person offer this technique of 'you want this' was Edward Bernays. Before he came along, all advertisements were focused on praticallity, instead of wanting. He thought that all humans act on irrational emotions, and that these irrational emotions could be used to market anything, when the thing was presented as a symbol of something. It's rather hard to explain, so here's an example of what he did.

In the 1920's it was considered highly taboo for a woman to light a cigarette in public. The American Tobacco Company comes to Bernays and says 'Our cigarette sales are dropping at a fantastic rate due to this, is there anything you could do?'. Bernays agrees. He then goes around to young models, and asks if they would agree to light a cigarette during the New York City Parade, in which they would all be marching. Once he gets a fair number of models to agree, he goes to every newpaper in the vicinity, and tell them that a group of women's rights marchers will light up "Torches of Freedom" during the NYC parade. Sure enough, during the parade, when the models began to light up, every newspaper from miles around was there, and the next morning all across America were headlines such as "Women's Rights Marchers Light Up "Torches of Freedom"". Smoking a cigarette in public became a symbol of power for a woman, and cigarette sales proceeded to skyrocket, and all because Bernays had an idea. And, the idea of "woman smoking=powerful" still exists today.

Unforunately, Bernays was not a good guy, in my eyes. He believed that Democracy was impossible, because people would always make irrational decisions based on emotions. He saw people in terms of masses, rather than individuals.

When the New Deal with first introduced by FDR, Bernays was, at first, a heroic defender of business, and launched a huge pro-business campaign. But, the government is at the same time trying to desperately promote the New Deal. Basically, it was flat out war. Some smart people higher up in the government saw the effect that Bernays had on the people, and wrote Bernays saying 'Hey, if you come and work for us we'll pay you lots, so come over here'. Unforunately, Bernays accepted, and suddenly became a New Deal promoter. Definitely, a two-faced man in my eyes.

I encourage you all to watch 'Century of the Self', it's available on google video. Ever since watching it, I look at advertising in a completely different way. You can see, that Bernays' ideas still live on, even though he died 12 years ago, at the age of 104.

As a side note, tomorrow(Monday) is November 5th. This is a very important day. Why is it important? I shall name three reasons.

1. It's the big Ron Paul donation day. www.thisnovember5th.com (edit @ 9:06 AM: 1,000,000 dollar mark passed!!! edit @ 2:20 PM: 2,000,000 dollar mark passed!!! EDIT @ 7:45 PM: The previous record for largest number of dollars donated by internet in one day WAS 3.1 million, held by John Kerry in 2004. RON PAUL JUST BEAT THAT! We're at 3.25 million now! Final edit @ 7:19 AM next day: total amount of donations came to 4.1 MILLION! The NY Times had a piece on it today.)

2. It's the day Guy Fawkes failed to blow up Parliment.

3. It's the day that the facist government was overthrown in the movie and graphic novel 'V For Vendetta'.

Remember, remember the 5th of November
The gunpowder treason and plot
I know of no reason, why the gunpoweder treason
should ever be forgot

    Halloween pictures are here!

We live in a neighborhood ideal for trick-or-treating so we always have a bunch of people over. The one in white on the far left is my younger sister, the one sitting against the lady in the queen's cape, is my other younger sister, and the on in the coat and tie leaning up against the pole on the right is my younger brother. 

These are my good friends Maxl(left) and Theo(right). They went as Theseus and the Minotaur from greek mythology. And yes, that minotaur head is handmade. It was AWESOME seeing Maxl scare all the trick-or-treaters who came to the door with it.  

 This is me and my brother as Vera Galt from The Driver, and Sven Vollifield from the anime Black Cat

And this is me as Vera Galt.

 All in all, a very satisfying Halloween.