There is nothing more annoying than having your head used as a napkin by your elders. Ogilvy Johannesburg tapped into the idiosyncrasy of this local tradition to devise a quirky ad to promote KFC’s "Streetwise 2" meal.

KFC briefed Ogilvy to come up with a locally relevant TV commercial for the KFC Streetwise 2 meal, an ad that would capture the audience through nostalgia and emotion.

Says Ogilvy Johannesburg Business Director, Tracey Edwards: “Our approach had to be different because the task was different, and we had to ensure that the link to the brand promise of ‘finger-lickin good” was unmistakable,” she says. She adds that KFC advertising always has a retail-skew and a product shot was included in this commercial because the Streetwise offering is so well-entrenched in consumers’ minds.

The hand-on-head wiping is a ritual meant to bode well for lots of cows, and therefore wealth for the young boy on the receiving end. “Understandably, it’s not fun for anyone to have a head full of grease, all in the name of tradition,” says Edwards.

The boy in the ad decides he’s had enough of the head-wiping business and comes up with the idea of buying KFC’s "Streetwise 2" special for himself and his uncle. Instead of wiping his hands on the boy’s head, the uncle instead licks his fingers, because KFC is just so “finger-licking good.”

KFC Chief Marketing Officer, Nikki Rule, says Ogilvy has once again produced an ad that combines humour, emotion and creativity and which taps into the target market perfectly. “The commercial seamlessly threads a local custom into the essence of the brand, and brings a strong human element into product advertising,” she says.

As the cherry on the top, the commercial also won the Creative Director’s Forum Ad of the Month for February in the TV category.