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What economists are learning now, marketers have (sadly) already forgotten

Jon Cherry
By Jon Cherry
3 Apr 2024
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As behavioural economics enjoys something of a golden age, let us not forget about the legendary originator of spin.

In 2002 a psychologist by the name of Daniel Kahneman was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics for proving something we all know but often overlook.

What he demonstrated to the world was that human beings who consciously think things through in a calm, rational way to arrive at a point where they make a sound judgement, do so rarely. This came as somewhat of a surprise to economists whose entire discipline is premised on the principle that people are, first and foremost, rational beings; constantly doing things entirely with the intention of maximising their preferred position in life with perfect clarity of thought. 

Kahneman, who died at the age of 90 last week, argued quite simply in his book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, that people use two distinct thinking styles in the process of their decision-making:


  • Fast thinking is our dominant mode of mental processing and is characterised by our immediate response to incoming stimuli; it is driven by our emotions and the subconscious mind; and

  • Slow thinking is the arduous process of actually using the conscious mind to logically work through a problem. We tend to welcome the opportunity to do slow thinking as much as we voluntarily choose to have a root canal performed; meaning that many of the decisions we end up making in our lives are made with judgement that is loaded with emotion and bias.


What was news to economists in the 21st century was, however, old hat to people working in public relations, who had been actively shaping public opinion by the engineering of consent through emotional triggers since the early 1930s.

Covert manipulation of emotions


Sigmund Freud’s nephew, Edward Bernays, is widely regarded as the “father of public relations” thanks to his pioneering work in manipulating public opinion at scale; he invented propaganda if you will.

He sought to commercialise much of the psychoanalysis research that his famous uncle was doing, ending up a highly sought-after strategy consultant for business and political clients that included Procter and Gamble, big tobacco companies and the US government.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Africa the target of a surging disinformation tsunami, mainly generated by Russia

Bernays is credited for popularising the tradition of eating bacon and eggs for breakfast, he invented product placement in movies, he came up with the idea that cars could be sold as symbols of male sexuality and convinced women (who did not smoke very much at the time  because it was considered taboo) that exercising their agency to smoke cigarettes represented a step towards gender equality by publicly challenging that male power. 

Among his many corporate clients was Lucky Strike cigarettes and their problem was that the growing number of female smokers were not choosing to smoke Lucky Strike because their pack was green, which clashed with the predominantly dark colours of fashion in the early 1930s, a demure palette strongly influenced by the hangover from the Great Depression. 

Obviously Lucky Strike were not going to change the colour of their packaging to please the whims of women, so Bernays tried instead to change society’s attitude towards the colour green by covertly hosting a lavish Green Ball at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City, which was put on by high-society women and had a strong charity theme. There was no mention of Lucky Strike’s involvement in the event. Rather it was staged purely as a “charity event” for New York’s finest debutantes. The Green Ball influenced magazine editors and designers like Elsa Schiaparelli, who were responsible for creating garments for Hollywood stars, into believing that green was the new black, and as a result, packets of green cigarettes like Lucky Strike got the cultural thumbs up and love that they deserved from influential socialites.

The strategy was designed on the understanding that people can have their opinions moulded by purposefully shifting the context in which “rational decisions” are made.

Mainstream manipulation of the irrational


Later in 1947, a young copywriter by the name of Mary Frances Gerety masterminded one of the most influential and enduring marketing strategies of the 20th century. Working through an advertising agency for De Beers that modelled their approach on the ideas pioneered by Bernays, she came up with the infamous slogan, “A diamond is forever”. By cleverly associating the symbolism of a diamond with everlasting love, De Beers invented the diamond engagement ring and transformed the entire industry. Since the campaign’s introduction the share of brides being given a diamond engagement ring in the US rose from just 10% in the 1930s to about 80% in the 1980s.

A simple, emotionally charged idea, amplified at scale by powerful Hollywood storytelling, has created and fuelled the diamond industry for the past 80 years. Today still we don’t actively analyse and question the logic behind the engagement ring, or the origins of the ritual of matrimony. Once programmed into society’s mental and cultural DNA we tend to just accept things as they are.

Read more in Daily Maverick: When journalists become stenographers of power and dominant forces

Ironically, since the early 2000s the economic sciences have traded places with marketing sciences when it comes to the cognitive position that practitioners are taking in their work. Behavioural economics is enjoying something of a golden age since the publishing of Kahneman’s work. While CMOs worldwide have become far too reliant on analytically grounded promotional tactics that sell the logic of a product choice, rather than focusing on altering the malleable landscape that touches the hearts of consumers.

Bernays’s “engineering of consent” has had an unquestionable impact on the world and yet hardly anyone has heard of him. As we reflect on Kahneman’s passing and the ideas that he gave to the world, let us not forget about the legendary originator of spin and the astonishing applications of the theory coming from both of them. DM

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