Abstract
During the Cold War, neutral Sweden was one of the most militarized countries in the world, and select companies from most major industries were part of the "total defense" and included in war-time planning. The planning, formalized in the early 1960s, not only included the provisions for the companies in the event of war but also gave them special privileges in peace time. In this paper the relationship between the government agencies responsible for psychological defense and civilian advertising companies is analyzed. It is shown that the relationship at least occasionally gave the participating companies advantages when it came to government contracts, both for the military and for other government agencies. The paper also gives an overview of the history and organization of psychological defense and of the advertising organization within the psychological defense authorities. The paper also describes the services that the advertising companies provided and how the contracts were handed out.