As a teenager, I used to read “how to make money from home” “How to market yourself” “How to get rich doing some simple task” and stuff like that. Pre-internet but there were tons and tons of books on the subject including basic marketing psychology tricks and stuff.
So when I learned about the propaganda tools, public relations tools, whatever – saw examples – none of it surprised me as it was all the same kinds of techniques; which really isn’t too surprising as it’s all a part of the same media era.
Biggest refinement that we’re still using today and STILL WORKS is emotional appeal stuff – pathos – refined by the guy that convinced the US Government to rename its Propaganda Dept to Public Relations Department in order to distinguish itself from other countries and it worked. Ne of Freud apparently can’t think of his name, not sure if he really was his ne though as he was the master at propaganda lol