KLOOP | KOSHOGO | 2019
Printing rejected accusations onto white curtains / KLOOP "KOSHOGO"
A white cloth appeared in the city. It was supposed to be a symbol of marriage—but it had become a record of violence.
The problem
In Kyrgyzstan, bride kidnapping known as "ala kachuu" is still widespread today. In 2018 alone, 15,000 women were kidnapped and forced into marriage, but only 28 cases ever made it to trial. Police refused to accept reports from victims, dismissing it as "tradition," and society as a whole treated the issue as taboo. On 5/28/2018, Burulai Turdaly-kyzy, who had been kidnapped by Mars Bodoshev, was stabbed to death by him inside a police station—because officers had locked the two of them in the same room together. As the trial over this case proceeded, the Kyrgyz online media outlet KLOOP decided to break the silence.
The insight
"Koshogo" is the white curtain hung at the kidnapper's house; according to tradition, a bride passing beneath it signals her consent to marry. Refusing often means being raped. Leo Burnett Moscow arrived at the idea of turning the koshogo—this symbol of purity and traditional marriage—into a medium that would make visible the accusations victims had been denied by police. By flipping the image of "purity" that the color white carries, the idea exposes the violence and silence hidden behind it. There's no stronger form of criticism than inverting a symbol like this.
The idea
They printed victims' accusation statements—the ones police had refused to accept—onto hundreds of koshogo curtains. Then, on 11/30/2018, they hung these curtains across the city of Bishkek, in the very places where kidnappings had actually occurred. At the same time, they published video testimonies online, with victims themselves speaking from the locations where they'd been abducted. In an instant, this traditional symbol of the white curtain became a medium for accusation. The equation "marriage = celebration" that people carried in their minds came crashing down, colliding head-on with the reality that "marriage = violence."
What happened
This campaign won Gold in the Outdoor category at Cannes Lions 2019. It also won Bronze in Media, Bronze in PR, and Bronze in SDGs, plus a Merit Award at The One Show. It won multiple awards at Eurobest 2019 as well, including a Silver. It was covered by industry media like Adweek and LBB Online, drawing international attention. It became one of Leo Burnett Moscow's biggest achievements of 2019.
Afterthought
There aren't many cases where advertising has used the power to repurpose a symbol so fully within a social context. The sheer strength of the idea—turning koshogo, a "symbol of tradition," into a "medium of accusation"—is remarkable. The geographic precision of hanging the curtains in the exact places where the kidnappings occurred, and the victims' own video testimonies—every element carries real necessity. KLOOP has continued to pursue those in power in Kyrgyzstan since then, and from 2024 onward has become a target of government crackdowns, facing the threat of being shut down. Even so, it continues reporting. This koshogo campaign showed us, vividly, the power that's unleashed when journalism and advertising join forces.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Gold 2019
