Iran blacks out Beckham billboards

Photographs of the footballer David Beckham have been blacked out on billboards in the Iranian capital, Tehran, in what appears to be a backlash against Western cultural influence.Five billboards in the city carrying a head and shoulders shot of the Real Madrid and England star advertising engine oil have been draped in black cloth. Correspondents say David Beckham is the first Western celebrity to be used in an advertising campaign in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution. It is not clear who ordered the billboards to be covered. continue