Tóxicas dependências IIIA "irreverência" dos fumadores

"The year is 1929 and the American Tobacco Corporation is looking for ways to expand its market. Smoking for women is still considered taboo. Enter Edward Bernays, nephew of Sigmund Freud.

Bernays, according to a documentary produced by Adam Curtis, developed a method of manipulating the mind for the benefit of the market. Exploiting his uncle's insights into the individuals instinctual drives, Bernays taught America's biggest corporations how, via advertising, they could sell more goods by appealing to irrational desires instead of responding to rational needs.

In exchange for a large fee, the psychoanalyst A.A. Brill explained to Bernays that the cigarette was a symbol of the penis and male sexual power. Inspired by this insight, Bernays briefed the press about an imminent women's rights protest, and then persuaded a group of wealthy debutantes to take part in New York City's Easter day parade and, at his signal, light up some Lucky Strikes. The photographs in the following days papers were captioned "Torches of Freedom", and sales of cigarettes to women soon began to rise.(...)
Source: Financial Times, 20 March 2002"

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ser vitima de controlo de massas está bem longe da tal irreverência e questionar da autoridade. e então? ... ainda é cool?