They’ve so flooded the zone on corruption that “the alcohol lobby cut a check to get them to say alcohol is good for you” isn’t going to get much notice
I'll never forget the day I learned about Edward Bernays (father of modern "advertising" and someone who also just happens to be the nephew of Sigmund Freud) and how he worked with US tobacco companies to expand the market for cigarettes and sold smoking to women as a feminist act of defiance by branding them as "Torches of Freedom".
Looking at a video like this, an advertisement campaign he created in 1929 is just as impactful and powerful today, and is amplified by the audio-visual medium.
I still think about the fact our world of advertisements was essentially created by a man who wrote books called "Propaganda", "Crystallizing Public Opinion", "Public Relations" and "The Engineering of Consent", and whose uncle literally popularized the concept of the subconscious mind (with the obvious implication if you can manipulate the subconscious mind, you can transform public perception)
Fun Fact: Bernays' grand nephew is Marc Randolph, one of the co-Founders of Netflix. Small, small world...
In Fury (2014), Brad Pitt does the stoic-leader thing flawlessly and Jon Bernthal goes full feral intensity… but Shia LaBeouf quietly walks in and acts like he’s in a different, heavier movie. It’s one of those performances that steals the whole damn film