Fun Time Weekly
Iran's First Comic-Style Advertisement — Where Advertising Turns Into Illustrated Storytelling
YEAR
2019
ROLE
Creator & Publisher
LOCATION
Mashhad, Iran
STATUS
Published
CHALLENGE
The Big Idea
Advertisers in Iran were stuck in an era of static, forgettable display ads. Audiences had developed complete ad blindness. The challenge was to make advertising something people actually wanted to read.
A weekly comic-format advertising publication that replaced conventional ads with illustrated stories — making brands memorable through narrative rather than repetition.
APPROACH
We created a weekly publication where every advertiser's message was turned into a short illustrated story or comic strip — written by storytellers, drawn by illustrators, and distributed to engaged readers who came for the content.
TECHNOLOGIES
The best ad is the one people share before they realize it's an ad.
-- Mahdi Meshkani --
ORIGIN
Iran's Advertising Needed a Story
Advertisers in Iran were stuck in an era of static, forgettable display ads. Audiences had developed complete ad blindness. The challenge was to make advertising something people actually wanted to read.
VISION
Where Every Brand Becomes a Character
Each weekly edition featured multiple brands — each one rendered as a comic character or story arc. The brand wasn't just mentioned; it was the protagonist.
Brands that ran for multiple issues developed following characters. Readers would look forward to the next episode. For the first time in Iran, an advertising product had loyal readers.
IMPACT
A New Category in Iranian Media
Fun Time Weekly created a new category: comic-format brand storytelling. Brands that participated saw dramatically higher recall and engagement compared to traditional media buys.
The format proved that Iranian audiences were hungry for creative, story-driven content — a lesson that influenced how I approached every creative project that followed.
