Carpe diem campaigns are exciting. They sweep up people in the mood of the moment and are immediately, unwaveringly relatable. PS21’s carpe diem for KFC is one of the best yet. And it cost next to nothing to produce.

On March 16 and 17, a huge dust storm swirled over Europe from the Sahara desert, completely covering several countries in dust. Including Spain. Its cities woke up to an orange sky, with all cars parked outside completely blanketed in dirt. KFC Spain and PS21 realised they’d been given an opportunity. They turned the dust-covered cars into their own communication channel.   

The campaign began with a Twitter post in which KFC encouraged Spaniards to draw the KFC logo with their hand on their cars to get two free original recipe chicken strips in any of the 76 KFC Auto in its restaurants throughout the country. 

The initial tweet, Let’s do one thing: if you stop by any KFC Auto with a ‘breaded’ car and the letters KFC painted with your finger, we’ll give you two chicken strips with our real breading. This is not a joke. Restaurants are already notified, gathered more than 5 million impressions and 300,000 interactions on Twitter in less than 24 hours.

The campaign resulted in more than 1,000 citizens across Spain painting the KFC logo on their car and going to their nearest KFC Auto restaurant to enjoy their free Original Recipe chicken strips. And not just cars. Some Spaniards used their creativity and “graffitied” other vehicles such as bicycles or baby strollers to take advantage of the promotion.