From the earliest days of the resistance war against the French, billboards appeared everywhere in urban centres, giving rise to a noteworthy tradition of Vietnamese propaganda posters (tranh cổ động).

These were created initially as both woodblock and lithographed prints by established artists such as Trần Văn Cẩn, Nguyễn Sáng, Phạm Văn Đôn, Phan Kế An and Lương Xuân Nhị (b 1913), but later they were produced on an exclusively lithographed basis by a group of professional poster designers which included Đào Đức (b 1929), Nguyễn Xuân Hồng (b 1930), Trần Việt Sơn (b 1935), Đỗ Mạnh Cương (b 1940) and Phạm Trí Tuệ (b 1942).

At the same time the almost pop-art quality of the imagery used in propaganda posters has attracted considerable interest amongst overseas art collectors, and in recent years several dedicated propaganda poster galleries have opened in Hà Nội and Hồ Chí Minh City, selling posters for upwards of US$300 each.