#KFCProposal

In 2019, a bystander filmed Hector Mkansi proposing to Nonhlanhla Soldaat at a KFC outlet in Vaal, Gauteng — and posted it online. It wasn't a campaign. It wasn't planned. It was just a real moment of joy, caught on camera.

But KFC, like South Africa itself, is famous for its hospitality — so we couldn't let the story end there. Using #KFCProposal, we got the whole country involved in tracking the couple down. It didn't take long. Once we found them, we offered them the ultimate Southern Hospitality: a fairy-tale wedding, planned to their taste, paid for by KFC.

As creative lead, I shaped the idea of giving them the biggest wedding South Africa had ever seen — and once it was out there, the country took over. What happened next went far beyond anything we could have scripted. Over 5,000 brands and individuals stepped in with pledges, from honeymoons and outfits to car rides and livestock for the traditional ceremony. A national bank wrote off the couple's debt and offered them a mortgage on a new home. The wedding itself was livestreamed to thousands of viewers across the world.

#KFCProposal trended at #1 for 48 hours, drew 4.8 million views on the proposal video alone, and brought 39.5k new followers to KFC's account. The story earned 930 pieces of media coverage worth R1M in PR value, with 12.9 million impressions and a reach of over 1 billion.

It's one of the clearest examples of Ubuntu — South Africa's philosophy of shared humanity — playing out in real time, on a national stage.