Ocean Outdoor becomes strategic partner to new digital archive with Swedish election posters
STOCKHOLM, Sweden, 31 August 2026 — Propaganda Index today launches an online collection of more than 400 Swedish election posters dating back to 1911, previously scattered across archives and low-resolution digital sources. Two AI processes make the collection possible: restoration that recovers legibility from damaged and faded originals, and analysis that surfaces recurring language, themes and visual motifs across parties and periods, generating new patterns and insights from over a century of political messaging.
Propaganda Index is an initiative by Swedish innovation studio Surprise Systems, supported by Ocean Outdoor, with source material drawn in part from the collections of the National Library of Sweden. Dagens Nyheter contributes editorial content and interviews with subject-matter experts.
The project has no commercial or party-political purpose. It treats election posters as a record of how political ideas have been compressed into words and images for public display, with the aim of making the visual history of democracy accessible to researchers, students, journalists and anyone interested in Swedish political history.
“Election posters use many of the same tools as the strongest commercial campaigns: clarity, repetition, artistry and emotion. But the stakes are different. Propaganda Index makes that history visible, showing how political ideas enter shared public space.”
— Jesper Albansson, CMO, Ocean Outdoor Nordics
Restoring a century of political messaging
A multi-stage AI workflow improved resolution, contrast and readability across scanned and photographed source material, including posters more than a century old. Propaganda Index publishes information on its sources, restoration workflow and analytical methodology, so users can see how each digital version was produced.
An AI-assisted analysis layer helps visitors compare recurring language, themes and visual motifs across parties and periods. This layer is exploratory: a way to surface patterns and raise new questions about how political communication has changed over time.
Propaganda Index began with a simple realisation: Swedish election posters were difficult for the public to access. Yet an archive mapping how political ideas have evolved over time is more than a historical resource. It is fundamental to a democratic society. Election posters compress political ideas into words and images. They reveal what parties wanted voters to believe, and how political priorities, language and visual codes shift over time. Making this history easier to explore helps voters better understand the campaigns they encounter today.
— Johan Pihl, co-founder, Surprise Systems
Editorial and public-space context
Ocean Outdoor contributes out-of-home expertise as sponsor and strategic partner. The launch includes an outdoor campaign on selected Ocean screens across Sweden.
Dagens Nyheter contributes reporting, expert interviews and historical context.
Further public shared meaning activities planned
Out Of Home advertising is about creating shared meaning to an audience. Ocean Outdoor and Surprise systems will build on that notion through a series of activities, starting at the Creative Summit – the Nordics’ largest event dedicated to creativity. A real life poster exhibition and a keynote presentation by Surprise System’s Johan Pihl and David Borg is on the menu.
An initiative designed to grow
The Swedish collection is the first step. Propaganda Index plans to expand to other countries, enabling comparison of how political messages change across democratic cultures.
Explore Propaganda Index at www.propagandaindex.se
About Propaganda Index
Propaganda Index is a non-commercial, non-partisan educational initiative by Surprise Systems that collects, catalogues, restores and analyses historical election posters.
