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This paper investigates the development of German ideas about "professional" and "scientific" advertising during the Weimar era, focusing in particular on the interaction between commercial advertising and political propaganda. Due to the widespread notion that Germany’s defeat in the Great War had been caused by enemy propaganda, the advertising industry in Germany was uniquely able to promote itself through reference to its alleged political importance. Drawing on new methods from the United States in particular, advertisers claimed that their technical expertise was an indispensable tool of modern trade and politics. During the crisis of the early 1930s, amidst the success of Nazi propaganda, German advertisers presented themselves as the saviours of both the state (by generating a sense of emotional attachment to the political order against the onslaught of the radical parties) and the economy (by stimulating consumer demand).