In addition to Bruce Barton’s work, President Coolidge also enlisted the help of public relations agent, Edward Bernays, the “the father of spin”, to play a big role in molding Coolidge’s successful public image. Influenced by the work of his uncle Sigmund Freud, Bernays developed his own “science” of what he called “public relations.” [1]
By taking what he knew about politics and the public sphere, he was able to connect mass-produced goods to consumers’ “unconscious desires”. Bernays opened his own public relations firm in New York in 1919, which quickly attracting a large number of major clients. According to Life magazine, Bernays was one of the most influential people of the twentieth century. [2] His client list included some of the most major corporations of his time ranging from American Tobacco to General Dodge Motor Company. Known as the father of public relations because of his ability to combine business marketing and psychology, Bernays was hired to improve the president’s sullen public image on the night before the 1924 election. [3] Theodore Roosevelt said that Coolidge was “as weaned as a pickle” which was actually quite damaging to Coolidge’s public reputation. Bernays needed to brighten Coolidge’s dour image during the 1924 campaign. Bernays developed a plan that would get famous actors and actresses to attend a breakfast at the White House. This idea, at least in 1924, was very controversial because actors and actresses were still viewed as their 17th century reputation presented them, but there was no arguing that they expressed humanness and warmth.[4] Bernays knew that the event would receive a lot of coverage from the media so he achieved this by bringing Al Jolson and 40 other Broadway performers to the White House. [5] The event was covered by several major papers of the time ranging from The New York Times to the Times. The story was picked up because it was outside the norm and as Bernays said, used an old press agent technique, which was using famous names and inviting them to an event that was anything, but routine. [6] Bernays was hired to improve Coolidge’s image before the 1924 presidential election by using public relation tactics that were different from previous presidential publicity techniques.
[1] MacDonald, K. (2012, January 1). Public Relations. Accessed March 22, 2015, from http://www.cambridgehistory.org/discover/innovation/Edward Bernays.html
[3] Advertising and Public Relations: The Mass Distribution of Ideas. (n.d.). Accessed March 22, 2015, from http://lcweb2.loc.gov:8081/ammem/amrlhtml/inadvert.html
[4] Bernays, Edward. “Prosperity and Thrift: The Coolidge Era and the Consumer Economy, 1921-1929.” American Memory: Presented by the Library of Congress. Accessed March 23, 2015. http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=amrlm&fileName=me02page.db&recNum=3.
[5] Chernow, Ron. “First Among Flacks.” The New York Times Books. August 16, 1995. Accessed March 23, 2015. http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/08/16/reviews/980816.16chernot.html.
[6] Bernays, Edward. “Prosperity and Thrift: The Coolidge Era and the Consumer Economy, 1921-1929.” American Memory: Presented by the Library of Congress. Accessed March 23, 2015. http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=amrlm&fileName=me02page.db&recNum=3.
President Coolidge 