What can you get away with at home, that you could never dream of doing when you get back “home-home”, over the festive season?

An insightful pan-African KFC campaign celebrates exactly this fascinating part of life across the continent – the parallel lives that young people live at “home” in the city, and “home-home”, where they come from.

In Kenya, visiting the rural areas is called “going to Shagz,” and there are a bunch of other vernac expressions for it. The culture clash of going home is a hilarious part of our shared African culture, come Christmas time.

The KFC Home-Home campaign shows that while there are certain parts of ourselves that we might not want to bring “home-home”, the one thing that everyone agrees on is the finger-lickin’ good taste of KFC.

“In the city, anything flies; you can rock your tattoos, wear anything, and speak any way you want,” says Mukundi Munzhelele, KFC Marketing Director, EW&I and Marketing Excellence. “But when you're home-home, that doesn't fly. You're expected to go back to your default settings. Luckily, the good thing about KFC is that it always flies – whether you’re at home or home-home.”

The Home-Home campaign launched across several African markets and runs throughout the festive season. It features two social-media components, several branded films, out-of-home, and the #KFCHomeDos&Donts rollout on radio and social.

The latter rollout has grabbed the imagination of listeners and users right across Africa, as they share what they got up to at home that would never fly at home-home — via voice notes, comments or replies. Participants stand to win a range of KFC vouchers and prizes.

The campaign also launched trends on socials, as influencers embraced the idea, with travel vlogs, and “home vs home-home” content becoming the flavour of the moment. User-generated clips could see kids pranking their parents, by calling them by their first names, or leaving the TV on when they went to bed!

Leaving unwashed dishes overnight? Wearing shoes indoors? Fancy nails? Glam outfits? Speaking your mind a little too freely? All these big-city ways must be put on the back burner when young Africans return home.

Some have even noted the unwritten rules that apply when enjoying a bucket of KFC with the family. Dad has dibs on the biggest piece of chicken, while it takes brave diplomacy to secure the last piece in the package. Another eternal truth is that the one who goes to pick up the KFC order is never the one who pays for it!

Whether the festive bucket is brought home, or all the way home-home, the joy of sharing KFC with friends and family remains undiminished.

The KFC Home-Home campaign was devised by KFC along with lead agency Ogilvy.

“The campaign began with the cultural insight that many urbanised African people live parallel lives, between our homes in the city and our other homes in the communities of our extended families,” says Ogilvy South Africa Executive Creative Director Snooze Kambuwa. “We tried to celebrate that, complete with all the good-natured subterfuge and code-switching that goes with it. But we also made the point that KFC flies wherever you are – at home, or home-home.”

The KFC Home-Home campaign rolled out across Ghana, Tanzania, Senegal, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Gabon and Mauritius, and runs into early January.