Corporate propaganda refers to corporations or government entities that spread specific ideology in order to shape public opinion or perceptions and promote its own interests. The more well-known term, propaganda, refers to the spreading of information or ideas by someone who has an interest in changing another person's thoughts or actions. Two important early developers in this field were Harold Lasswell and Edward Bernays. Some scholars refer to propaganda terms such as public relations, marketing, and advertising as Organized Persuasive Communication (OPC). Corporations must learn how to use OPC in order to successfully target and control audiences.
History
It was not until the 20th century that the term propaganda started to become more well-known. The invention of the newspaper and radio aided the public's knowledge of this term because of its use in World War I. Harold Lasswell was the first to define propaganda as it is thought of today. He defined it as a person or group that aims to influence the opinion or actions of another through psychological manipulations, often subconsciously.
Early propaganda
One of the initial developers in the field of propaganda was Edward Bernays. Propaganda became more widely known during World War I when the US government hired Bernays for the Committee for Public Information (CPI). Throughout the early portion of his career, he called himself a propagandist. While he was employed by the CPI, Bernays established the "Counsel on Public Relations" and established Public Relations as a stand-alone practice. During World War I, the term propaganda had taken on a negative connotation due to its use in Nazi Germany. In Bernay's book Propaganda, he stated that the using the term was a crucial part of organizations that wanted to get noticed by the public. Since propaganda had negative connotations already, he wanted it separated from its original connotation so that organizations could use targeted messaging to influence American consumers. He wanted to redefine propaganda to fit in the Public Relations role. His "new propaganda" was to be seen as a tool to be used by corporations to shape society's opinions and persuade consumers.
thumb|Tobacco cigarette advertisement that was made specifically to appeal to women
Propaganda for products
After the success of the pro-war propaganda campaign, Bernays was hired by the American Tobacco Company to find a way to persuade American women to start smoking. In the 1920s men were the primary consumers of cigarettes, and the American Tobacco Company saw women as an untapped potential consumer base. The first campaign Bernays created was aimed at women's beauty standards. He came up with the idea to advertise cigarettes as a way to lose weight. The advertisements encouraged them to pick up a cigarette instead of a fattening food. This campaign worked incredibly well, and women started smoking at home but not out in public, so Bernays created his second campaign. This time, it appealed to the feminist movement. He labeled cigarettes "torches of freedom" and said they promoted equality among the genders. Many journalists were critical of Bernays and his new public relations. They had a hard time seeing the differences between PR and press agents. Bernays believed that, at its core, PR was a moral practice that benefited all society, but he had trouble convincing others of that.
Even though Bernays felt his definition of PR was completely ethical, some scholars criticized his involvement in the field. One occurrence that Bernays was involved with that had people questioning the ethics of propaganda or PR involved the National Electric Light Association (NELA) and their parent company General Electric (GE). In 1928. NELA implemented a propaganda campaign that discouraged the public from owning any of the electric utilities. Their propaganda campaign was set in newspapers and schools. The company publicly said that the campaign was for educational purposes so that the public would be more informed about the industry. However, when the government investigated them, it was found that they were buying off schools and faculty.