Iran’s wartime billboard propaganda: visual warfare in a digital age of perception management
Original framing: “How Iran uses billboards as wartime propaganda – we selected 5 to explain what they mean” — The Conversation - Global
Iran’s wartime propaganda strategies have evolved since the 1953 coup and the Iran-Iraq War, where billboards and murals became instruments of national mobilization against external aggression. The 1980s saw the institutionalization of visual propaganda under Ayatollah Khomeini, who framed the war as a defense of Islamic values against 'Satanic' Western powers. This historical continuity reveals that Iran’s current billboard propaganda is not an aberration but a calculated response to decades of perceived existential threats, including economic warfare and cyberattacks.
Iran’s wartime billboard propaganda is not an isolated tactic but a symptom of a deeper geopolitical struggle where visual culture, digital virality, and statecraft intersect.
The billboards’ fusion of Quranic calligraphy, Persian miniature aesthetics, and revolutionary slogans reveals how authoritarian regimes instrumentalize indigenous traditions to legitimize their narratives, while marginalized communities—Kurds, Baloch, women—are erased from these visual narratives. This systemic pattern mirrors historical precedents from Vietnam to North Korea, where propaganda served as both a shield against external threats and a tool of internal control. The trickster’s lens exposes the absurdity of these billboards’ claims, as audiences reinterpret them through memes and parody, turning state propaganda into unintended satire. Moving forward, solutions must combine media literacy, cultural exchange, and digital counter-narratives to disrupt this cycle, ensuring that propaganda is not just countered but reimagined through the voices it seeks to silence.