Century of the Self - NOTES & STUDY TASK

List the Ten most important points raised in Adam Curtis’s documentary ‘Century of the self’.

Relate these points to a critical analysis of one image from the mass media which, in particular, focuses on the nature of consumerism, desire and the unconscious. The advert can be something from now or could be a TV show etc. 

Think about the False needs, our actual desires, our instincts and Freud’s notion of the unconscious. You can use cigarette advertising if you wish...

• Governments use Freuds theories to try control the masses. 
• Bernays was the first person to take Freuds theories and controlled the masses. He linked mass produced goods to their unconsious desires. Satisfying peoples inner selfish desires. Creating the all consuming self.
• 100 years ago Freuds ideas were hated
• They thought his theories were a threat to control.
• Hidden inside all human beings are dangerous instinctual desires - powerful and sexual forces which we have repressed in the past. There is a barrier in all our minds that keep all these thoughts in our unconscious from emerging.
• Edward Bernays best client was opera singer Caruso. He opened in Ohio and America announced they was entering the war between Germany and Austria. Bernays was employed by the American government in promoting the idea home and abroad. Bringing democracy to all of Europe. He was asked to accompany the president to the world Peace conference
• He made Wilson a hero amongst the masses using Bernays theories. Bernays wondered if you could use propaganda for war you could use it for peace. Propaganda became a bad word so Bernays came up with Public Relations.
• At the end of the 19th Century America was industrializes. Using Freuds theories from his general introduction of physcoalalysis. he wanted to make money by manipulating the unconscious. He played with peoples irrational emotions.
• His most dramatic experiment was to persuade women to smoke. At the time there was a taboo against women smoking, so the company asked Bernay’s to find a way about breaking it.  He  a physcoanalysis to see what womens relationship to cigarettes were
• He told the company that cigarettes were a symbol of the penis. And by women smoking they can have a penis of their own.
• He set up a public display getting women to spark up in public. Bernays knew the press would jump oin this so he came up with phrase torches of freedom, this was all over the world the next day. Making the sale of cigarettes to woman rise over night. This made people think that smoking made women more powerful.
• He came up with the idea that linking products to peoples irrational emotions would make people by things they don't actually need. People thought they would feel better about themselves if they invest in the product.
• America was afraid of over production and that people would think they have enough things. So they advertised things as nesecaties. The adverts showed the products practical virtues, so they changed this so that the adverts promoted desire. This shaped a new mentality in america making mans desires shadow their needs.
• Bernays created many techniques of mass production which we live with today. Such as linking products with famous film stars and also product placement. He dressed stars in clothes and jewellery linked to his companies so that the masses would have a desire to  be like their idols. 
• He made people buy things so they could express their character. Fashion
• 1927 - Consumerism
• Bernays promoted the idea that normal people should buy shares, from banks that were his client. He knew how to work the crowd.
• In 1924 President Calvin Coolidge approached him. The press portrayed the president as a dull figure so Bernays persuaded famous film figures to visit the white house. This went on to create a headline of “The President nearly Laughed” and everyone was happy in Bernay's words.
• Freud faced bankruptcy so he contacted Bernays to help him. Bernays helped get Freuds book published. Bernays publicised them to make sure everyone knew about the theories. He suggested Freud wrote an article for Cosmopolitan magazine, but he refused. Freud was very pessimistic about human beings and retreated to alps every year.
• Freud later believed he had underestimated the aggressive tendencies in humans. He said men were angry, dangerous and sadistic, he hated all men. 
• Lidmond believes the mob is driven by their spines not their minds. unconscious primitive urges drive them.
• You could tap into the publics deepest fears or desires and use that against them to make them by things.
• 1920's, the consuming self made the economy work and created a stable docile society.
• Bernays became extremely rich and lived in a series of rooms in a hotel. He would use this place to throw parties with people from the government, the arts world and others. He was very popular.
• Bernays power was destroyed - 1929 - 50th anniversary of the lightbulb. The shares started fall rapidly, throughout the 1920s people had borrowed billions. The market collapsed, investors started selling everything. 29th of october the market collapsed, Major recession and unemployment. People stopped buying.
• This effected Europe, both Germany and Austria were having street battles
•  Against this backdrop Freud was battling cancer in his jaw and wrote a book called civilasation and its contents. He argued that civilisation was created to control our animalistic forces inside. Humans can never truly express themselves as it would be too dangeerous. They must always be controlled. They must be discontent.
• He did not believe in the equality of man.
• Nazis thought democracy was dangerous, they believed it lead to poverty, unemployment and recession. They wanted to control human beings in another way taking control of business. Government would take other production. Feelings and desires of the masses will be central but channeled.
• Freud described in crowd psychology  peoples irrational behaviour will emerge in groups. He warned that the nazi's were provoking these emotions. Which would come back to bite them.
• As a result of the stock market crash, Crowds became angry and took out their frustration on the corporations who had caused it.
• President Roosevelt (1960) employed Gallop and Roper who rejected Bernays' view and thought theat people could be trusted to have a voice with political situations of the country. He believed people are rational and make good decisions. Giving everyone a voice in how things are run - opinion polling. He thought the stock market crash was all to do with capitalism.
• Business decided to fight back and reclaim power. Bernays lead this revolution. They launched a campaign to get people to invest emotion in the companies. It was to show that business had created modern america not the government. The campaign used adverts and billboards even newspapers. This became a bitter fight, The government tried to make the public relations people to be the enemy. Saying that there methods are a dangerous.
• In 1939, New York hosted the worlds fair. Bernays insisted that the theme was linking american democracy and business. There was a white dome that Bernays named 'Democracity'. The central exhibited was a large scale model of America's future. 
• It was a huge success and captured America's imagination. A form of Democracy in which business responded to the peoples desires and demands which is something that the politicians could not achieve. The people are not in charge but their desires are. 
• If you can trigger the needs and desires you can get what you want from them.
•  In May 1938. Freud came to London on a work permit to escape Nazi Germany. His cancer was advanced and as the second world war started, 3 weeks in, he died.   
• Freud thought that we had 2 types of desires, Ambitions and erotic

10 Important Points Raised

1. Bernay's was the first person to take Freuds theories and control the masses. He linked mass produced goods to peoples unconsious desires. Satisfying peoples inner selfish desires. Creating the all consuming self. Which drove the economy.
2. Freud believed that hidden inside all human beings are dangerous instinctual desires - powerful and sexual forces which we have repressed in the past. There is a barrier in all our minds that keep all these thoughts in our unconscious from emerging. Bernays wondered if you could play with these hidden feelings to control the masses.
3. Bernays's most dramatic experiment was to persuade women to smoke. At the time there was a taboo against women smoking, so the company asked Bernay’s to find a way about breaking it.  He  asked a physcoanalysis to see what womens relationship to cigarettes were He told the company that cigarettes were a symbol of the penis. And by women smoking they can have a penis of their own. Signifying power and control. 
4. He set up a public display getting women to spark up in public. Bernays knew the press would jump oin this so he came up with phrase torches of freedom, this was all over the world the next day. Making the sale of cigarettes to woman rise over night. This made people think that smoking made women more powerful.
5. America was afraid of over production and that people would think they have enough things. So they advertised things as nesecaties. Originally the adverts only showed the products practical virtues, so they changed this so that the adverts promoted desire. This shaped a new mentality in america making mans desires shadow their needs. Bernays created many techniques of mass production which we live with today. Such as linking products with famous film stars and also product placement. He dressed stars in clothes and jewellery linked to his companies so that the masses would have a desire to  be like their idols. 
6. 1920's, the consuming self made the economy work and created a stable docile society. Bernays wanted to maintain control over the masses by playing with their emotions making people believe their lives were better than they really were.
7. Bernays power was destroyed - 1929 - 50th anniversary of the lightbulb. The shares started fall rapidly, throughout the 1920s people had borrowed billions. The market collapsed, investors started selling everything. 29th of october the market collapsed, Major recession and unemployment. People stopped buying. This effected Europe, both Germany and Austria were having street battles. What originally helped build the economy had no destroyed it.
8. Nazis thought democracy was dangerous, they believed it lead to poverty, unemployment and recession. They wanted to control human beings in another way taking control of business. Government would take over production. Feelings and desires of the masses will be central but channeled. Freud described in crowd psychology  peoples irrational behaviour will emerge in groups. He warned that the nazi's were provoking these emotions. Which would come back to bite them...
9. President Roosevelt (1960) employed Gallop and Roper who rejected Bernays' view and thought theat people could be trusted to have a voice with political situations of the country. He believed people are rational and make good decisions. Giving everyone a voice in how things are run - opinion polling. He thought the stock market crash was all to do with capitalism. 
10. In response to this the companies fought back, and reclaim power. Bernays lead this revolution. They launched a campaign to get people to invest emotion in the companies. It was to show that business had created modern america not the government. The campaign used adverts and billboards even newspapers. This became a bitter fight, The government tried to make the public relations people to be the enemy. Saying that there methods are a dangerous. In 1939, New York hosted the worlds fair. Bernays insisted that the theme was linking american democracy and business. There was a white dome that Bernays named 'Democracity'. The central exhibited was a large scale model of America's future.  It was a huge success and captured America's imagination. A form of Democracy in which business responded to the peoples desires and demands which is something that the politicians could not achieve. The people are not in charge but their desires are. 

Critical Analysis

Sexuality has been employed in advertising since the beginning of advertising itself. Sexual appeals used in ads are of many types and consist of a variety of elements. They often are grounded in visual elements, such as attractive models, and may portray varying degrees of nudity and suggestiveness. Over the past two decades, the use of increasingly explicit sexual imagery in consumer-oriented print advertising has become almost commonplace. Whether it’s good or bad – sexuality is considered one of the most powerful tools of marketing and particularly advertising. So when it comes to creating an advertisement and you don’t have too many clever ideas – always remember one general rule – sex sells.

I came across this quite explicit advert for Burger Kings latest sandwhich the super seven incher. This avert could not be more sexually directed if it tried. This is a quite an obvious way of using sex in advertising. They have used quite crued terminolgy to sell the sandwich, using the tagline it will blow you away, this is quite obviously relating the sadwich to the act of oral sex which highlights Frueds theory of oral fixation, giving the impression that the sandwich matches up to a blowjob.

The fact the girl has been pictured all done up in makeup about to take the sandwich in her mouth, could be seen as a sign of penis envy, the sandwich is a phallic symbol representing power and the penis. This creates desire in woman as they have the chance to have their very own 'penis of power' the fact its called the super seven incher may appeal to men who feel in adequate about their penis. This is known as penis envy. 

There are other sexual connotations within the image such as the overly white cheese, which signifies sperm they also use the phrases:

"Fill your desire for something long, juicy and flame-grilled with the NEW BK SUPER SEVEN INCHER," it says. "Yearn for more after you taste the mind-blowing burger that comes with a single beef patty, topped with American cheese, crispy onions and the A1 Thick and Hearty Steak Sauce." This is quite over the top but will definitely catch the eye of the public. This advert will probably have a bigger effect on men, as it will touch their sexual desires, making them believe that eating this sandwich will create a feeling similar to sex. By linking the 2 together the advertisers have created desire for the product.

Unfortunately this advert got bad press and didn't last long, the designers names were not released as they did not want bad press for their company,