World War I forced the first systematic state-run propaganda campaigns.

Evidence

Foreseeing a much longer war than his colleagues did, one with heavy losses, Kitchener took the highly realistic view that Britain needed to do something it had never done before: raise a huge army of a million men at least. With conscription ruled out by tradition and policy, however, Kitchener had the idea to make a direct and personal appeal to the British public. And thus began the first state-run attention harvest, or what historians would later call the “first systematic propaganda campaign directed at the civilian population.” — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 127

Categorization

• XREF: This ties directly into the recursive history of voluntary attention capture across industries; the state borrowing advertising techniques from commerce. Possible connection to the later chapters on the BBC and wartime radio propaganda. — connects to: Britain pioneered state-controlled broadcast propaganda before Nazi Germany did. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 414; Governments only began systematically using modern media for propaganda in 1915. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 130; World War I hate-propaganda films drew record crowds in US cities (+2 more)
• QUESTION: What specific 18th- and 19th-century precedents existed for state advertising before WWI? The author says it was unprecedented — worth checking whether there were any partial exceptions (recruitment posters, colonial proclamations).

Broader Connections

• Governments only began systematically using modern media for propaganda in 1915. #corroborates (0.90) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 130
• WWI propaganda pioneered totalizing capture of every available medium #expands (0.90) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 156
• World War I hate-propaganda films drew record crowds in US cities #exemplifies (0.80)
• World War I propaganda reached 134 million Americans via volunteer speakers #exemplifies (0.80) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 158