With the government campaigns as proof-of-concept for what a mass advertising campaign might achieve, corporate America soon caught Bernays's enthusiasm. There was something about the British and American use of advertising for official purposes that cleansed the practice of its tainted reputation. Applied to a high common purpose it could no longer be deemed a mere prop of charlatanry. "Advertising has earned its credentials," concluded Printer's Ink, the advertising trade magazine, "as an important implement of war."

Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, loc. 172