Likeonomics: The Unexpected Truth Behind Earning Trust, Influencing Behavior, and Inspiring Action

Chapter 1

Inside the Modern Believability Crisis: How Rockefeller’s Dimes, War Propaganda, and the Marlboro Man Ruined the World

How Rockefeller’s Dimes, War Propaganda, and the Marlboro Man Ruined the World

We are governed, our minds molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.

—Edward Bernays, in Propaganda, 1928s

 

About a hundred years ago, one of the world’s richest men had a public relations (PR) problem. His name was John D. Rockefeller, and in 1914, he was dealing with a crisis that most of American history has since forgotten.

A decade earlier Rockefeller had purchased the Colorado Fuel and Iron Corporation (CF&I). In the span of those 10 years, CF&I had quickly come to dominate the growing coal mining industry in Colorado. With 27 dirty and mostly lawless mining camps in Southern Colorado, they had a virtual dictatorship over the many immigrants who worked in the mines. Thanks to the financial success of mining, the company also enjoyed a controlling political influence across the state of Colorado.

Unfortunately, that money never really made it to the miners’ pockets, and mining was a hard life. For years the miners suffered under brutal and dangerous working conditions with a lack of basic rights. Finally, the miners decided to create their own organization, United Mine Workers, to negotiate ...