Reklam och nation : Nationsformering i Sverige under andra världskriget

Sammanfattning: This thesis studies the Swedish advertising business as an actor in the national formation of Sweden. It argues that earlier research has ignored to see advertising businesses as possible forces of these formations. The essay investigates how this appears historically through collaboration with an informational organisation that had risen due to the Second World War and that was a part of the national defence. I can, by investigating a discussion that focused on this informational organisation and the advertising businesses relation to it, show how the business as an effect of a civic engagement expressed an interest to participate in the informational work. The thesis will also, through the pamphlet Om kriget kommer. Vägledning för rikets medborgare i händelse av krig, that was part of a campaign made by this organisation, and through a correspondence between the informational organisation and some people of the advertising business that were included in the elaboration of the pamphlet, show how the business successively gained influence over this work. It was through advertising theoretical frameworks that the business could gain influence on the informational campaigns. By applying these skills on the informational work, the advertising business guaranteed a thorough circulation of the national definition that was presented in the pamphlet. The inclusion of the advertising business in the informational work is furthermore highlighted by the civil deeds that were dictated in the same pamphlet – actions, that if practiced, in turn would secure and possibly form the nation.