[jrowen]

Arguably this started decades ago when they successfully established the KFC Party Barrel as a traditional Christmas meal in Japan.

[craftinator]

I lived in Japan for 2 years, and found it absolutely insane how strong the following of the Party Barrel is. The KFC in a town near by had sold out their availability 4 months in advance one year.

[Klonoar]

That wasn't something that they outright did, it just kind of happened.

I would also be _shocked_ if that team had any relation to the team doing their current ad work.

[resu_nimda]

From what I've read there's a lot of credit attributed to the manager of the first KFC in Japan (who eventually became CEO of KFC Japan), and they started a "Kentucky for Christmas" ad campaign there in 1974.

I took a bit of dramatic liberty in connecting that to their present-day efforts, but I could definitely see it being a part of company lore encouraging unconventional marketing strategies.