In many international markets, chicken empire KFC has run with marketing campaigns that verge on the absurd. See, for example, Colonel Sanders on a plane serving coffee (China), or the brand’s fried chicken-scented bath bomb (Japan), or its big FCK-ing apology over a chicken shortage (the U.K.).

In Romania, however, the QSR has been running a content series with a serious twist on the fandom and obsessiveness that pervades social media. The central character (for once, not a bespectacled grandfather-figure by the name of Colonel Sanders) is a girl who comes to treat all her relationships through the filter of social media hashtags.

The “Social Me” series, developed by MRM//McCann Romania and McCann Bucharest, is the first original series on the KFC Social Entertainment Channel, a new digital platform launched by the restaurant chain. A McCann spokesperson told Ad Age that the series’ brand messaging, while not overtly about KFC, falls within its mantra to “Be Real.”

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Credits
Client: KFC Romania
Agencies: MRM//McCann Romania,  McCann Bucharest