The UIUC News Bureau profiles Inger Stole’s new University of Illinois Press book Advertising at War: Business, Consumers, and Government in the 1940s.

“While it might be hard to imagine in the midst of the ad-soaked holiday season, there was a time – in the 1930s – when advertising faced fierce opposition from the public.

Then came World War II, and everything changed, says Inger Stole.

Advertisers and the advertising industry helped the federal government sell war bonds and the need for wartime security (‘loose lips sink ships’). It promoted ‘victory gardens’ and scrap metal drives. It helped recruit men into the military and women into the workforce (‘Rosie the Riveter’).”