Kazakhstani social media users are buzzing about Adidas’s new local advertising campaign promoting the Adidas Control 5 sneakers under the slogan «Culture in Motion.» Kursiv LifeStyle explains how a Kazakhstani creative team received an official commission from the global brand.
The brand has released commercials filmed in the city of Aktau and Kazakhstan’s Mangystau region. The footage features everyday life, rural landscapes, traditional games and imagery, which the creators combined with Adidas’s modern aesthetic.
Aktau-based creative team Ay Qyz carried out the project, directed by Aidana Medi and produced by Diana Medi. The team shot all the material in Aktau’s 22nd microdistrict, as well as in the villages of Kyzyltobe and Daulet in the Mangystau region. All the actors were residents, and a local crew carried out the entire project.
Interestingly, Adidas representatives noticed the team and offered to collaborate on an official project after Ay Qyz created a video for its portfolio that combined Kazakh culture, the atmosphere of village life, and modern street style. The video garnered 1 million views on Instagram and drew the brand’s attention.
As part of the campaign, the team created three videos and took a set of photos over a month for the brand’s new collection. The footage featured the daily lives of ordinary people, rural life and traditional games such as lyanga and asyk atu. Adidas eventually posted the content on its official global page.
According to producer Diana Medi, the team specifically wanted to showcase modern, everyday culture rather than stereotypical images of Kazakhstan.
«We wanted to show that tradition and modernity can coexist,» she said.
However, reactions from social media users were mixed. Some viewers were dissatisfied with the location choices. They also pointed to the contrast between the scale of a global brand with billions of dollars in revenue and the local production. Others recalled international controversies surrounding the brand.
