Hisstori Campaign: Engaging Iranian Youth with History Through Interactive Multimedia

Hisstori Campaign

The unique features of social media platforms have led users to lose interest in reading books, long articles, magazines, and newspapers. Instead, they seek content through a tweet or an Instagram post. But how many characters can a tweet or post hold to convey an important message? And more importantly, are social media platforms even suitable for increasing knowledge and awareness?

We tried to create a multimedia collection for children and teenagers—who are more inclined toward interactive platforms and less patient with serious, informative content—to help them engage with the content of 13 comprehensive books through games, competitions, flashcards, interactive apps, and social media. After participating in this campaign, they would become familiar with and master the content of those books.

We named this campaign “Hisstori”—a word that in Persian hints at the hidden corners of history and overlooked historical facts, while in English it simply means “history.” The campaign aimed to narrate the story of colonialism and the countless crimes committed by Europe and the U.S. across the world over the past four centuries. We wanted Iranian teenagers to become aware of these crimes and understand how the current global power structure came to be.

The Hisstori campaign managed to engage 653,000 Iranian students from across the country. That means 653,000 teenagers became familiar with the historical crimes of Europe and America in recent centuries.