A while back I came across a documentary about Edward Bernays, the late cousin of Sigmund Freud. From wikipedia:

Edward Louis Bernays was a US pioneer in the field of public relations along with Ivy Lee. Combining the ideas of Gustave Le Bon and Wilfred Trotter on crowd psychology with the psychoanalytical ideas of his uncle, Sigmund Freud, Bernays was one of the first to attempt to manipulate public opinion using the subconscious.

Basically he realized that in order to control the masses, you need to connect to their irrational being, not their rational or logical side. He also changed Western society from a needs-based society to a want-based one. Being a dabbler of psychology, I thought that’s pretty damn cool.

Checkout this introductory clip: