
Japan Celebrates Christmas with KFC - rmason
http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20161216-why-japan-celebrates-christmas-with-kfc
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djsumdog
Marketing is an interesting thing. Edward Bernays was paid by the tobacco
companies to get more women to smoke and manufactured an entire fake women's
lib campaign called "Torches of Freedom" that equivocated smoking with women's
suffrage. He was also one of the earliest instances of made up doctors and
studies to prove you should have a huge bacon, eggs and toast breakfast.

Bernays was the first to really push the emotional connection between ads and
products. Prior to the 1930s, most advertisements were more descriptions of
what they did, or compared themselves to other brands. There are some cases of
emotional hooks here and there, but it didn't really pick up until Bernays,
and later Anna Freud and the invention of the Focus Group.

Now we have tons of industries that have turned specific days into huge
consumer pulls, like Valentines Day .. or .. well .. Christmas.

Merry axe-mass everyone! Stay safe from robo santa!

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tomjakubowski
This is really fascinating stuff. I had no idea that Sigmund Freud was married
into the family that pioneered emotionally-based marketing!

How did you learn this stuff? Do you have a book recommendation?

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djsumdog
I'd recommend the BBC documentary The Century of The Self. It's a multi-part
film by Adam Curtis.

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staunch
I think it's more "traditional" to get the Christmas cake at a convenience
store than an actual bakery though, plus it really completes the picture.

One of those things that's so wrong, it's right.

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ethbro
This is a bizarrely true thing. Essentially "For Christmas times... make it
Kentucky time."

[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Jrb7a8NUeQA](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Jrb7a8NUeQA)

God bless the strange fruits of Japanese-American culture.

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revelation
If you like this, you might also appreciate "The Colones Comes To Japan":

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwwmKcFVji8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwwmKcFVji8)

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gnicholas
Surprising to learn that KFC had a Japanese CEO from 1984 to 2002.

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autarch
He was CEO of KFC Japan, not KFC worldwide.

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gnicholas
Ah, that makes much more sense. I actually googled to try to backstop this
claim and only found other similar claims. Should have known better!

