Eurasian Fashion Week Urgently Removes Billboards Featuring Blogger in Almaty
Eurasian Fashion Week urgently dismantled billboards and video spots featuring Aigerim Berdaliyeva in Almaty following her Threads post about Soviet street names.
The organizers of Eurasian Fashion Week dismantled all advertising banners and video spots featuring blogger Aigerim Berdaliyeva (mini_knopka) in Almaty within 24 hours. The decision came after a provocative post on the social network Threads, in which the woman stated that she principledly uses only Soviet-era names for city streets.
What Happened?
The scandal erupted around a billboard on Dostyk Avenue — one of the central avenues in Kazakhstan's southern capital. Berdaliyeva saw the fashion week ad featuring her face and responded with a post on Threads. In the post, she declared that she ignores modern Kazakhstani toponyms.
"No Dostyk, Nazarbayev, Nauryzbai Batyr, Zheltoksan, etc. True Almaty residents say Furmanova, Dzerzhinsky, Mira, Vinogradova…" the blogger wrote.
The post was accompanied by rude and obscene remarks directed at critics. The post quickly gained traction and sparked a wave of outrage among social media users.
How Did the Advertiser Respond?
Users demanded that the fashion week organizers impose sanctions on the blogger and remove the ads featuring her. Eurasian Fashion Week chose the fastest scenario: a complete shutdown of the campaign.
The company issued an official statement and began the urgent dismantling of the ad placements.
"We officially declare that EURASIAN FASHION WEEK has nothing to do with the blogger's statements and does not support the position expressed on her personal page," the organization said.
This applies to all banners and video spots featuring Berdaliyeva on the streets and screens of Almaty. The company does not plan to restore the advertising.
How Did the Story End?
After the ad campaign was canceled, Berdaliyeva deleted the controversial thread and published an apology post. The blogger said she had written the text in the heat of emotion.
She noted that she did not intend to offend anyone or provoke a conflict. At the same time, Berdaliyeva declined further debate and decided to stay silent.
What Does This Mean for the Advertising Market?
This case demonstrates the speed with which brands today distance themselves from ambassadors following reputational incidents on social media. The decision to dismantle outdoor advertising is a costly operational measure: the placements have already been paid for and installed.
Nevertheless, Eurasian Fashion Week preferred losing the placements to reputational risks. For the Kazakhstani market, this is yet another example of how content on influencers' personal accounts directly affects commercial contracts — even when it has nothing to do with the promoted product.
The outdoor advertising industry in Almaty has faced demands to dismantle controversial creatives before, but in most cases the reason was the content of the layout itself. Here, the placements were removed because of the behavior of the person depicted on them — a precedent that will force agencies to spell out reputational clauses in ambassador contracts more carefully.
The scandal also highlights the role of Threads as a platform capable of generating crises of national scale: it was a post on this network that triggered the campaign's cancellation.
Source: Kursiv
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