Abstract
Propaganda, aimed at one's own and the enemy's side, is as old as war. In connection with the emergence of 'total war,' the home front became as important as the front line. At the same time as wars became total, the modern advertising industry emerged, and with this, advertisements came to be used to inform and influence the population. It could be done to maintain the will to resist, recruit volunteers, inform about rationing, sell war bonds, and prevent the spread of information that could help the enemy. The chapter examines how advertising and information were used to influence the home front during First World War until the Cold War. Such activities were carried out by government authorities-military and civilian-and by private advertising companies collaborating with the government. Military-civilian cooperation in war advertising occurred in many belligerent and non-belligerent countries. The forms varied as well as scope and scale. In some cases, the government war contracts provided crucial income to the advertising industry at a time when blockades or the transformation to a war economy caused the civilian advertising market to collapse. The chapter gives an overview of the previous literature. Also, it provides an empirical contribution in which this activity in a great power that has repeatedly participated in wars, the United States, is compared with a non-aligned and neutral small state, Sweden, to isolate the central aspects of advertising in war information services.