Sweden mails every household 'If Crisis or War Comes' — 4.8M kept and read

In 2017 the Swedish government asked MSB, the Civil Contingencies Agency, to rebuild citizens' knowledge of what to do in a serious crisis or war. The last time every household had received such guidance was 1961, and focus groups showed people simply no longer knew how to act.

MSB spent about a year and a half condensing vast amounts of material into a 20-page brochure. Content was written in simple Swedish with short sentences and illustrations, tested on ten focus groups of different ages and backgrounds, and coordinated with the armed forces, municipalities, and volunteer defense organizations.

Communications agency Kreab handled design and illustration. The team deliberately chose thick, uncoated paper so the booklet would feel robust and different from glossy advertising mail, and a pull-out checklist sat in the center so readers could hang it on the fridge. The result — 'If Crisis or War Comes' — was mailed to 4.8 million households during Crisis Preparedness Week in May 2018.

An evaluation of 5,700 recipients found 90% had noticed the brochure, 96% of them had read it, and more than 60% planned to keep it. International media covered the mailing widely, and other agencies and alliances contacted MSB about the approach. In 2024 a revised edition, distributed to over five million households, repeated the same model.