This has been in keeping with the messaging of Assad and his supporters. Last week, as eastern Aleppo faced a night-long blitz from warplanes above, the state's news agency posted a video about Aleppo's supposedly "thriving nightlife."
The agit-prop sparked widespread derision outside the country, which has been brutalised and hollowed out by half a decade of conflict. Aleppo, once Syria's economic capital and most populous city, has been devastated by the war. In rebel-held areas, a grim, nihilistic fatalism has set in.
"People don't know what to do or where to go," a resident of rebel-held Aleppo said last month. "There is no escape. It is like the end of the world."
But don't discount the propaganda of the Syrian regime, either. From the outset of the war, Assad and his supporters have framed their battles as part of a war on terrorism and a mission to restore national unity. They have their own grievances, too: This week, residents of regime-held Aleppo came under attack from shelling by Islamist rebel factions. A number of students at a university reportedly died.
"What most outside observers don't realise is that there is a coherent and successful strategy behind the Syrian Government's marketing," writes Syria watcher Annia Ciezaldo.
"It may look like tin-pot propaganda to Western journalists, aid workers and policymakers, but they aren't its intended audience. The Assad Government is showing its supporters - even the reluctant ones - that it's in control. More than that, it's demonstrating that it's the only force within Syria that can guarantee a normal life."