+1 for 'Century of the Self' - it is on Google Video and it is absolutely amazing. It starts slow, but stick with it, it becomes an amazing sequence of revelations and ideas.

This is a terrific documentary, one of the most best I've ever seen. In my opinion Edward Bernays was one of the most (negatively) influential people of the 20th century.

The man helped the NACP when it was somewhat Taboo to do so. When cigarettes were later proved to be harmful, he devoted an enormous portion of his energy and a lot of money to campaigns against it. And after all, persuasion is an incredibly important part of democracy; look back to ancient Greek, even the arguments against rhetoric were heavily rhetorical. He was not evil.