Freedom as a Smoke Screen: Bernays, Freud, and the Engineering of Desire

Introduction

On Easter Sunday in 1929, a group of women walked down Fifth Avenue with a lit cigarette in hand. The press covered the event enthusiastically and baptized the gesture “Torches of Freedom.” The scene was not the product of spontaneous rebellion but of Edward L. Bernays’s imagination—Sigmund Freud’s nephew and a pioneer of modern persuasion. The episode may seem anecdotal, yet it condenses a sharp understanding of desire and the power of symbols in public life. This article explores how Bernays translated psychoanalytic intuitions into instruments of influence and what our culture can learn from that maneuver.

Bernays and Freud: Genealogy of an Influence

Bernays was not a psychoanalyst. Nevertheless, he traveled to Vienna, consulted family papers, familiarized himself with Freudian concepts, and helped disseminate the writings of his famous relative. In Propaganda (1928), he stated openly that “the conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society.” That conviction rested on a particular reading of psychoanalysis: the belief that much of human motivation resides in regions inaccessible to ordinary reflection.

Freudian psychology taught him that individuals respond to objects saturated with unconscious meaning. It was not a matter of applying clinical doctrine, but of embracing a broader insight: people are susceptible to symbols that condense fantasies, aspirations, and conflicts. For Bernays, marketing should intervene precisely at that level, guiding conduct without resorting to explicit argument. The theory of the unconscious thus became a handbook of persuasion.

“Torches of Freedom”: Choreography of a Symbol

Bernays’s most famous campaign began when the American Tobacco Company sought to expand its market. At the time, smoking in public was considered improper for women. Bernays consulted the psychoanalyst A. A. Brill, who suggested that the cigarette functioned as a symbol of masculine authority. Turning that object into a sign of emancipation would open the way to redefining female behavior.

He then staged a meticulously planned event. He invited several young women to join the Easter parade, instructed them to light a cigarette at a strategic moment, and coordinated press coverage. The slogan “Torches of Freedom” operated as a political rallying cry disguised as a promotional gesture. The cigarette acquired a new meaning, detached from social shame and linked to a legitimate aspiration for equality. The action demonstrated that advertising can reframe a product by embedding it within a broader narrative. The impact was immediate: for many women, smoking in public ceased to be taboo.

What mattered was not the cigarette itself. It was the symbol. The object became an emblem because Bernays understood that the politics of desire works through displacement—because cultures invest certain artifacts with an emotional density capable of directing behavior.

What This Case Teaches Consumers and Professionals

A. For the General Public
This episode reveals that our choices do not stem solely from rational calculation. We buy stories, identities, promises. Consumption feeds on meanings more than on needs. A product becomes attractive when it embodies a symbolic value we long to appropriate. Recognizing this mechanism does not neutralize its power, but it allows us to interpret it with greater lucidity.

The campaign also shows how brands can appropriate social causes to strengthen their position. Women’s emancipation was instrumentalized to sell tobacco, much like ecological or diversity discourses are used today to promote commodities. Cultural criticism begins when we notice such appropriations and ask about their material consequences.

Finally, the case invites the development of critical sensitivity. Media literacy involves more than decoding persuasive techniques; it requires understanding how signs are constructed and how they shape our emotional lives. Anyone who grasps these dynamics gains a measure of freedom within the symbolic environment we share.

B. For Graphic Designers and Marketing Specialists

The professional lesson is clear: the most powerful advertising does not transmit information; it reorganizes meaning. Designers work with archetypes, metaphors, and ritual gestures. Images can reconfigure the social perception of an object when they resonate with latent desires. The 1929 campaign exemplifies this operation.

Yet such power demands ethical reflection. Bernays forged a potent association between emancipation and cigarettes, with devastating consequences for public health. Symbolic efficacy, when detached from responsibility, becomes a dangerous tool. Communication professionals must evaluate the broader impact of their proposals, not merely their commercial success.

Contemporary marketing still relies on comparable strategies. Tech brands promise creativity and distinction; sports companies sell bodily excellence; eco-friendly labels offer a sense of virtue. All these narratives operate on the same principle: investing an object with a story that exceeds it. Bernays’s case stands both as a warning and as a reminder of the technique’s potency.

Conclusion

The scene of the “Torches of Freedom” encapsulates a profound shift in consumer culture. Bernays applied intuitions inspired by psychoanalysis to craft symbols capable of redirecting collective behavior. His intervention demonstrates that desire can be steered through images that crystallize social aspirations. For consumers, the task is to recognize the power of the stories that accompany products. For communication professionals, the challenge is to grasp that every symbol sets off effects that surpass any particular campaign. The cigarette turned emblem of equality remains a cautionary image: symbols can liberate, but they can also bind.

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Young, J. (2019). “Torches of Freedom and the Semiotics of Consumption.” Journal of Advertising History, 12(3), 45–59.