<Tr> <Th> Parent (s) </Th> <Td> Ely Bernays Anna Freud </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Relatives </Th> <Td> Martha Bernays (aunt) Sigmund Freud (uncle) Isaac Bernays (great - grandfather) </Td> </Tr> <P> Edward Louis Bernays (/ bərˈneɪz /; German: (bɛɐ̯ˈnaɪs); November 22, 1891 − March 9, 1995) was an Austrian - American pioneer in the field of public relations and propaganda, referred to in his obituary as "the father of public relations". Bernays was named one of the 100 most influential Americans of the 20th century by Life . He was the subject of a full length biography by Larry Tye called The Father of Spin (1999) and later an award - winning 2002 documentary for the BBC by Adam Curtis called The Century of the Self . More recently, Bernays is noted as the great - uncle of Netflix co-founder, Marc Randolph . </P> <P> His best - known campaigns include a 1929 effort to promote female smoking by branding cigarettes as feminist "Torches of Freedom" and his work for the United Fruit Company connected with the CIA - orchestrated overthrow of the democratically elected Guatemalan government in 1954 . He worked for dozens of major American corporations including Procter & Gamble and General Electric, and for government agencies, politicians, and non-profit organizations . </P>

Who is known to be the father of modern public relations