Wunderman Thompson: Iran Democracy Council’s A.IRAN

For more than 40 years, Iranian women have suffered discrimination and violence under the Islamic Regime. In September 2022, the death in custody of Masha ‘Jina’ Amini – a 22-year-old Iranian girl – for not wearing her hijab properly, ignited protests all around the country. Iranian women had had enough. Despite their protests, resilience and bravery, the rights of women in Iran are still being violated every day.

Wunderman Thompson and the Iran Democracy Council, a group of women attorneys and activists of Iranian descent, wanted to let the world know what is happening – and how bad it could be if nothing is done. They wanted to inspire action.

Generative AI was used to write a book about Women’s rights in Iran as if it were 2026. Presented as an interactive web publication, A.IRAN is an exploration of Iranian women’s future – set out in more than 20,000 words – assuming we remain silent. Readers can explore eight chapters with compelling AI-generated imagery covering every aspect of a woman’s life in Iran, from work to marriage to education to politics. If readers take action to fight for the cause, be it a donation or a commitment to volunteer, content on the page updates immediately, unveiling a new, more hopeful future.

A.IRAN shows how every step in the right direction can literally rewrite a country’s future in real time.

The strategy was to use A.IRAN as a tool to create noise and public awareness that would add to the pressure on governments in the Global North to take tougher policy stances on Iran.

With no media funding, Wunderman Thompson and the Iran Democracy Council looked to key influencers and the press to get the word out. They targeted mainly the Iranian diaspora in North America (2m people), directing them to the site with calls to action across social channels.

They encouraged people to join the movement to help rewrite Iran’s future by interacting with the tool, then taking action to make change – sharing, donating and volunteering. Every act affects the algorithm and thus the story and is a powerful way to show how each act matters today.

In the first two weeks of the campaign, A.IRAN saw thousands of people commit to donating and thousands more commit to volunteering. Press coverage and social sharing reached nearly 1m people.