The Creel Commission, also known as the Committee on Public Information, was established under President Woodrow Wilson. Its purpose was to influence American public opinion toward supporting U.S. intervention in World War I. Among those who participated in it were Wilson adviser Walter Lippmann and Edward Bernays, the latter of whom had remarked that "the essence of democratic society" was the "engineering of consent", by which propaganda was the necessary method for democracies to promote and garner support for policy. Many have commented that the Commission laid the groundwork for the public relations (PR) industry.