Roma, Italia 

 

“The spectacle presents itself simultaneously as society itself, as a part of society, and as an instrument of unification.” 

-Guy Debord The Spectacle Society

 

Between September 26th and October 9th, 2025 the Riyadh Comedy Festival took place, marking one of the most ambitious cultural showcases in Saudi Arabia’s recent history. Comedians Bill Burr, Kevin Hart, Jimmy Carr, Pete Davidson, and Dave Chappelle performed alongside fifty other notables. Bringing together local performers and internationally renowned comedians, the festival represents more than entertainment. It is a deliberate expression of Saudi Arabia’s evolving public diplomacy efforts to win over minds in the West. This is far from an isolated instance of the Kingdom seeking to diversify and reshape its global perception. Saudi Arabia has long recognized the power of spectacle as a vehicle for image management.

Under the leadership of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), the Saudis have aggressively funded and staged high-profile international events. Hosting countless celebrities, world-class sports figures, and chart-topping artists in a bid to reshape the perception of the Gulf nation to the international public. Saudi officials assert that these endeavors aim to diversify the nation’s predominantly petroleum-based economy, typically contributing 30-40% of the GDP annually. These spectacles are inextricably linked to Vision 2030, MBS’ ambitious plan to diversify the Saudi economy and draw billions in foreign investments and millions of tourists. At the heart of this strategy is the push to expand leisure and entertainment offerings, a move aimed to forge a modern and progressive image of the Kingdom to the international community. Despite being classified among the most advanced global economies by the World Bank, Saudi Arabia faces ongoing criticism regarding its human rights record and state governance practices, which have affected its international standing. Saudi Arabia seeks to reshape its international profile and establish a stronger presence in non-petroleum sectors.

What is Public Diplomacy?

Riyadh’s bid to become an epicenter in entertainment and sport are part of a bold public diplomacy strategy to win over the public of other nations. While traditional diplomacy targets foreign political communities and elites, public diplomacy communicates directly with foreign populations. Manipulating the narrative that reaches foreign populations can be a tremendous tool in constructing perceptions with profound consequences.  Joseph Nye’s concept of soft power helps clarify this strategy. Unlike hard power, which relies on material capabilities, soft power rests on attraction: “If a state can make its power seem legitimate in the eyes of others, it will encounter less resistance to its wishes.” Governments have long recognized the communicative power of spectacle to control the international narrative and gain a foothold in the minds of other nations. Highly publicized events enable leaders to promote a heavily curated image of their nation on the world stage.

Adolf Hitler infamously advertised Nazi Germany by hosting the 1936 Olympic Games, gaining credibility on the international scene with the added propaganda opportunity to discretely employ Olympic imagery to service Nazi racial myths. The advent of digital media and the subsequent erosion of friction of distance only boosts the impact of these public diplomacy efforts, as the potential audience of this messaging is multiplied exponentially. Whereas the Nazis relied on foreign media channels to disseminate propaganda abroad in the hope that it would eventually seep into public consciousness, modern governments can instantly craft and deliver tailored narratives, placing them directly in the open palms of billions. In a globalized and therefore economically interdependent world, the increased cost of conflict compels nations to pursue effective public diplomacy strategies to project influence beyond sheer military power. Nye contends that power has become more diffuse due to the spread of technological advancement and economic interdependence, and less fungible as transnational actors raise the costs of conflict and reinforce international norms at least in principle. Consequently, actors must recognize public diplomacy and strategies of soft power not as peripheral tools, but central mechanisms through which to navigate a world where influence depends as much on legitimacy as on strength.

How Does Modern Public Diplomacy Work?

George Gerbner’s “Cultivation Theory” of mass communication offers a useful lens for understanding the power of modern cultural spectacles. Gerbner argued that long-term exposure to media content gradually shapes audiences’ perceptions of reality, a process he described as “mainstreaming.” For example, if one only consumes violent programming then they may begin to perceive the world as inherently more violent than it actually is. Applied to Saudi Arabia’s case, repeated exposure to high-profile festivals, concerts, and sporting events cultivates a modern image of the Kingdom. Strategic investments in global sports have been particularly effective in this regard. In 2021, the Saudi Public Investment Fund launched the LIV Golf Tournament, which quickly drew elite players away from established leagues, propelling Saudi Arabia into the global spotlight of professional golf.  In 2022, one of the most marketable athletes in the world, the aging icon Cristiano Ronaldo raised eyebrows when he joined Riyadh’s Al-Nassr FC. Within days, the league’s social media following surged by more than 1,000% and Ronaldo has become an unofficial cultural ambassador for Saudi Arabia, using his platform of over 600 million Instagram followers to share favorable portrayals of the Kingdom and to publicly praise its achievements.

Looking ahead, Saudi Arabia is set to host the world’s most watched sporting event following a controversial voting process: the 2034 FIFA World Cup. Hosting commercial mega-events allows nations to project widely celebrated values to influential global audiences. On the international stage, participation in sports symbolizes a sense of shared identity, serving as a potent source of legitimacy. Successfully organizing such events not only highlights common social norms but also enhances a country’s prestige and soft power. The opportunity to host global sporting events enables leaders to “cut through the noise of global information society to disseminate a series of widely heard, reputation-enhancing messages over a sustained period.” Opening ceremonies, in particular, offer a unique opportunity for public diplomacy, granting nations to widely disseminate a narrative of their history and culture on their own terms. China famously utilized the opening ceremony to the 2008 Olympics to excellent effect, blending ancient tradition and modern spectacle to paint a portrait of national unity. Billions of viewers around the world witnessed an impressive display of Chinese culture combined with grand light-shows intended to inspire awe. The image of thousands of drummers performing in unison evoked Confucian ideals of harmony and collective strength. The ceremony’s precision and grandeur projected an image of competence, discipline, and cultural confidence, all reinforcing the narrative of a nation that had “arrived” as a modern superpower deserving of respect and recognition. Saudi Arabia will likely instrumentalize a World Cup hosted on its soil in much the same way, seizing the opportunity to present a tightly curated image to the billions of viewers watching.

The harnessing of spectacle is not limited to sporting events, instead Saudi Arabia instrumentalizes ambitious megaprojects to promote an image of a modern, even hyper-futuristic nation. Saudi Arabia’s vast portfolio of ongoing megaprojects, includes NEOM, Qiddiya, the Red Sea Project, AMAALA, and the King Salman International Stadium. If these designs seem lifted straight from the future, it is because they are. MBS has a particular affinity for the cyberpunk subgenre, with its visions of gritty, high-tech dystopias. For the NEOM Project, MBS has enlisted several prominent Hollywood visual specialists, including Olivier Pron, who helped create the hyper-futuristic world of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. These visions of the future intend to draw the eyes of the international public, explicitly advancing an image of the Kingdom as an architect of progress and innovation rather than a state bound by conservative traditions. NEOM is planned to cover an area 33 times the size of New York City at the cost of $500 billion. Yet the architecture of the future comes at a stark cost. In April 2020, activist Abdul-Rahim al-Howeiti was killed by Saudi security forces while protesting the forced removal of his Howeitat tribe from Al-Khuraybah to make way for the megaproject. Forced evictions and poor labor conditions illustrate the contradiction embedded in Vision 2030 and its pursuit of image transformation. Al-Howeiti documented both the eviction of community members and the presence of security forces in videos shared on social media. In his last video, he asserted, “I am sure if they kill me they would put weapons around my body and claim I was a terrorist.”

Along with spectacle and image, celebrities and cultural figures are key to Saudi Arabia’s approach to public diplomacy. Grant McCracken’s Meaning Transfer Model (MTM) maintains that the “celebrity endorser is a vessel of meaning, carrying cultural significance from the world of entertainment, sport, or art into the world of the consumer good.” When applied to geopolitics and public diplomacy, the “product” is a state’s international reputation and celebrities serve as conduits to transfer meaning. In securing endorsements from widely-admired celebrities, Saudi Arabia “borrows” their desired traits and transmutes them to reframe their identity. Meaning transfer is largely dependent on cultural systems, with symbolic meaning differing across the bifurcating lens of localized culture, allowing the same phenomenon to harbor different meanings to different audiences. In Saudi Arabia, Western celebrities may evoke a sense of patriotism and national rejuvenation, reinforcing the state’s narrative of progress. The presence of Western celebrities and world-renowned athletes in what was once a culturally closed society represents a symbolic barometer for the Kingdom’s entrance into global culture. However, to audiences in liberal democracies, the very same phenomenon may convey openness and global integration. Stand-up comedy is a particularly potent vehicle given that engagement requires active audience participation. Successful acts occur when performers and listeners connect, requiring the audience to recognize shared experiences, values, or social cues. Western comedians performing in Riyadh then become implicit endorsers of the host nation, instrumentalizing the associated meanings of authenticity to subtly advance the regime’s narrative while obscuring the restrictions that continue to shape its public sphere. While some viewers may detest the hypocrisy of ostensibly progressive celebrities engaging with deeply-conservative Saudi Arabia, others may simply uncritically take celebrity engagement as evidence of Saudi Arabia’s willingness to engage with externally-ascribed cultural meanings.

Beyond these theoretical lenses, these spectacles also serve the practical purpose of flooding relevant channels with neutral or positive reporting that drowns out any negative coverage. If every mention of the keyword “Saudi Arabia” links to clips of world-famous celebrities and prestigious spectacles, attention is diluted away from topics less-favorable to the regime. It is perhaps not an accident that the Riyadh Comedy Festival dates include the seven-year anniversary of the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed in a Saudi consulate after he reported on the Kingdom’s controversial campaign in Yemen and domestic political repression. Flooding channels with positive coverage becomes especially potent in a digital world, where the sheer speed of information has accelerated history itself. Stories that once defined years are now inevitably drowned in the endless sea of information created and consumed, a consequence of the democratization of content creation and the swell of digital users. When individuals are bombarded with excessive information, it becomes difficult to discern what deserves their attention. Joseph Nye surmises that it is then, “attention rather than information becomes the scarce resource, and those who can distinguish valuable information from background clutter gain power.” Under these conditions, superficial exposure to Saudi spectacles cultivate positive perceptions that can influence uninformed audiences. Sporadic linkages between the Saudi regime and the world’s most recognizable names can help shift collective attitudes, by borrowing related cultural currency.

A Culture at Odds

Traditionally, Saudi Arabia’s governance system has been grounded in an alliance between the Wahhabi clergy and the Al Saud royal family. In the background of the power center, princes represented rival factions within the royal family, each centered around a senior prince who controlled key institutions and maintained extensive patronage networks. Vying loyalties limited the ability to enact reforms, with a rentier system under a disjointed executive serving competing royal interests. Since the foundation of the state, Wahhabi doctrine played a critical role in legitimizing the political power of the latent royals. Although the dynamic is often simplified as a “balanced partnership,” in reality the relationship more closely resembles a paternalistic hierarchy wherein the royals subordinate the clergy. MBS has exacerbated this dynamic by marginalizing ultra-conservative clerics and elevating loyalists, all while promoting a state-sanctioned vision of “moderate Islam” that aligns with his modernization agenda.

It is telling that the same year that Vision 2030 was announced, in 2016, the authority of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice was diminished, loosening numerous puritanical restraints on Saudi citizens. In subsequent years, women became able to obtain drivers licenses and the Kingdom discontinued the practice of clerical judges issuing arbitrary sentencing based on uncodified Islamic law. Consolidation of political authority is reflected in the regime’s treatment of popular religious voices such as Sheikh Salman al-Awda. He was arrested after posting a conciliatory message to his ten million followers on Twitter, urging respective leaders to come to a peaceful solution to the 2017 Saudi-Qatar crisis: “May God harmonize between their hearts for the good of their people.” Al-Awda was put on trial facing thirty-seven charges, including “disrespecting the leaders,” “inciting public discord,” and “spreading corruption on Earth.” The use of charges cloaked in religious rhetoric suggests an effort by the state to draw on the moral authority of Islam even as it marginalizes unfavorable religious voices. This dynamic underscores the enduring entanglement of political and religious authority in Saudi Arabia, where faith is instrumentalized to legitimize repression. Subjected to extensive solitary confinement and medical neglect, the elderly al-Awda has become partially deaf and blind.

Since MBS gained de facto leadership over the Kingdom, Saudi Arabia has tightly controlled expression on social media networks. Widely applied cyber-crime and anti-terrorism statutes enable imprisonment of critical journalists, often citing “blasphemy,” “inciting chaos,” “jeopardizing national unity,” or “harming the image and reputation of the king and the state.” Saudi citizens have been detained for anywhere from 10 to 45 years for digital activism against the government. A recent high-profile example includes the execution of  Saudi journalist Turki al-Jasser on June 14th, 2024, following false charges of “terrorism” and “high treason” after he implicated the Saudi royal family in acts of corruption and human rights abuses. Under the Center for Studies and Media Affairs at the Royal Court, General Supervisor Saud al-Qahtani reigned in an era of “digital McCarthyism” to quash dissent at home and abroad. Wielding a Twitter account with more than one million followers, al-Qahtani announced the hashtag “#Black_List” (القائمة_السوداء#) in a widely-viewed post, rallying his supporters to nominate individuals to be “followed.” Although al-Qahtani was eventually dismissed for his alleged involvement in Khashoggi’s murder, the culture of self-censorship and pervasive digital surveillance he helped establish endures.

In MBS’s drive for modernization, the once-dominant Wahhabi interpretation of Islam has been systematically sidelined. The kingdom’s traditional foundations of asceticism and austerity—long opposed to theaters, live music, and cinemas—are being dismantled in favor of a more consumer-driven cultural vision. MBS seeks not only to overturn these conservative norms but also to harness the vast economic potential of a youthful population, nearly 70 percent of whom are under 30. Inherent to this bid to transform Saudi society is state repression of critical voices. Legitimacy once granted by Wahhabi doctrine now comes from modernization and promise of improved living standards. By curbing the influence of traditional clerical elites and silencing dissenting intellectuals, activists, and journalists, the state ensures that no alternative moral or ideological center can challenge the crown prince’s reformist narrative.

Promotional content for Vision 2030 explicitly recognizes this generational shift, stating, “We are well aware that the cultural and entertainment opportunities currently available do not reflect the rising aspirations of our citizens and residents, nor are they in harmony with our prosperous economy.” These efforts also signal an attempt to distance the kingdom from its image of rigid theocratic governance, an image that many international audiences associate with conservatism and often backwardness. MBS is aware of the political and financial profits that can accrue if he positions himself at the top of a cultural and entertainment revolution. Vision 2030 claims that the entertainment sector will create 22,000 jobs. More enticingly, the aspiration is to develop tourism that would bring some 50 million visitors to the kingdom annually. Saudi Arabia already enjoys tremendous cultural capital by controlling the two holiest sites in Islam, attracting millions yearly on Hajj and Umrah pilgrimage. MBS aims to complement these eschatological endowments with improved entertainment and holiday offerings allowing the Kingdom to position itself not only as a religious hub in the Islamic world, but also as a global destination for leisure, investment, and international engagement.

Final Remarks

Saudi Arabia’s extensive investment in cultural, sporting, and entertainment spectacles reflects a broader strategy of image reconstruction and economic diversification under Vision 2030. By leveraging soft power and public diplomacy, the Kingdom seeks to reposition itself as a modern and globally integrated state while reducing dependence on oil revenues. These efforts coincide with significant social and institutional transformations, including the recalibration of the traditional relationship between the monarchy and the religious establishment. However, the state’s pursuit of modernization has also been accompanied by tightened control over expression and civil society. The public alone can determine to what extent these veiled efforts at public diplomacy are successful.

 

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Autore dell’articolo: Alessandro Portolano graduated from the University of Connecticut in May 2025 and completed advanced studies in International Relations from Columbia University. He has research experience across international relations and geopolitical topics. His interests include public diplomacy, soft power, and environmental security.

 

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