Haruka Ayase kicks off KFC's Christmas campaign
Entertainment ( 38 )
TOKYO —
Actress Haruka Ayase, 26, who appears in TV commercials and other ad campaigns for KFC, helped the fast-food company get an early start to the Christmas season this week by attending an event to promote the KFC Party Barrel. KFC started accepting reservations for the barrel on Friday.
Christmas is KFC’s busiest season, the company said. Christmas eve records the highest sales volume each year. Japanese families traditionally eat KFC meals at home on Christmas eve and the chicken is in demand at parties.
Ayase said she enjoyed making this year’s TV commercials with cute children. Asked if she has any plans for Christmas, she said she doesn’t have anything special planned yet and would probably spend the time with her family, if she is not working.
The TV commercials will air from Nov 24.
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38 Comments
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0
Michael J. Morris
Let the Christmas barrage begin! Even though we are still more than 2 months away, we will be bombarded with songs and Christmas trees, from now until a week before Christmas, and then even before the day arrives, they will begin to pull stuff down to get ready for New Years. The cycle never ends!
-3
sf2k
?????
how on Oct 21 can this in any way be explained without appearing to be completely insane?
-4
JapanGal
I luv my man, but if he ever left, she would be on the top of my list as a christmas present to me alone.
2
Bogi
Pff.. Way behind. I'm already preparing for Valentine's Day.
1
borscht
Traditionally? Since the 1600s? or, er. more recently. Like, say, 1990? I know a lot of couples pick up a bucket o' greasy Fried before heading off to the traditional Christmas eve love hotel tryst, but families?
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Conrad Ashley
haya
-3
TorafusuTorasan
@borscht,
Ha ha, spicy buffalo wings were one of the original osechi ryori dishes. But KFC acquired the exclusive rights to sell those types of fried chicken not skewered on a stick.
On the serious side, if the three days around Christmas provide 20% of KFC's yearly profit (a statistic I read last year in the run up to Christmas), what does it say about their business the rest of the year?
-2
plasticmonkey
It's a practice that goes back as far the mid 1970s. Another commercially invented tradition fed to the insatiable monster of Japanese materialism.
0
bass4funk
Still waitin for KFC in Japan to get some mashed potatoes and gravy, I will never give up, nope, No way!
-2
SpanishEyez37
I have always wondered , how this KFC Christmas tradition started?
Moderator
Please visit http://www.japantoday.com/category/lifestyle/view/the-kfc-christmas-connection
-1
BlueWitch
@plasticmonkey
Excellent post, nothing but the truth.
-2
gogogo
ahhh the lemmings the buy KFC for christmas thinking it is something you are suppose to do, KFC marketing at it's best.
-1
tmarie
Have the pre-ordered their nasty Xmas cakes too?? Christmas here just makes me want to cry. Nothing but commercialism and greed at its best.
-6
JapanGal
I love The santa KFC
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JapanGal
Haruka is cute and I think lovely for this promotion! I want to meet her some day.
0
greentea lover
SOME Japanese families may eat KFC on Christmas Eve, but It's not a tradition.
-5
Serrano
Kurisumasu ni wa kentakkii !!!
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Serrano
"it's not a tradition"
It has been a tradition since 1974, greentea lover, get with the program already, ha ha!
-2
Japan242
Indeed this is tradition in Japan. Since i am little my dad would but each year delicous chicken and also cakes from Fujiya. It is my best time of year, i love eating KFC. I wonder if other country has same tradition.
-2
The_True
KFC start this early this year so they can make a kill before the average japanese realise there is no bonus this year!!
-4
JapanGal
tmarie: I am not a Christian as you know but I like Christmas, but it really is a turn off here. I am not religious but love all the holiday festivals from around the world. I cannot believe I saw at Chuorinkan Santa in the outfit already and it is not even Halloween ! Ok Troll.
I was just saying thank you to my troll for giving me a negative comment. That is not off topic. But then again, I never read my kashakinish mail. I love The santa KFC
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Yubaru
Christmas in Japan is purely secular, and KFC is just as much a part of it as the rest as well. In the early 70's Japan had finally shaken off the effects of WWII and started looking outwards to other countries for celebrations that they could adapt as their own. Families started having more disposal income and the standard of living was rising and KFC just initiated a tradition that continues to this day.
KFC is no longer alone in bringing chicken to the Christmas dinner table, Japanese confectioners got into the act with Christmas cakes as well.
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presto345
I remember the time, 1974, when KFC came to my city in western Japan. Our boss tried to impress us with a bucket of the, what shall I call it, greasy junk food that hardly tasted like the chicken I used to eat in my childhood. It was a revelation and a shock and a disappointment, but I could not tell the boss. I still wonder how people can eat that stuff.
A Christmas Eve tradition? No way.
Total self inspired pure nonsense. No families in my community nor my friends' communities have a habit, much less a tradition to eat this food on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.
-7
herefornow
Oh yes, the wonderful Japanese Christmas "traditions" of KFC, Cakeeee, and a romp at a love hotel. Truly inspiring.
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DS
All I know is that if MY wife ever brought home KFC for Christmas dinner, she wouldn't be my wife come New Year's Day.
We'll do a nice roast of beef with mashed potatoes and gravy as usual.
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johninnaha
Eating KFC at Christmas?
That must be one of the saddest things I've heard for ages.
-1
zichi
for us, there's nothing special about christmas, I like it that way so we'll eat just what we would normally eat, which won't be KFC. I can't even remember when I last ate that, many years ago.
-1
Yubaru
You know that's the problem with posting on forums like this, NOTHING is ever an absolute and generalities abound. I hope you ALWAYS post intimately accurate information on all of your posts.
Facts are as they are, in the era of the early 70's KFC exploded on the market here and there are plenty in the generation of people in their 40's and 50's that associate KFC with Christmas. Whether THEY buy it or not is another thing altogether.
Keep in mind as well that KFC now has plenty of competition as well, from the local supermarkets to McDonald's, pretty much everywhere has advertising out prior to Christmas promoting their "own" chicken and cakes.
SO you and your friends might not eat KFC but odds are there is chicken on the menu. And read closer what I wrote next time.
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johninnaha
Whether Christmas is religious or secular depends on the people celebrating it. It's a symbol, and like any other symbol, it has the meaning that you put on it.
In any case, the roots of what is celebrated on December 25th have little to do with Christ. It's very unlikely that Christ was born on the 25th of December anyway. For one thing, it would be too cold for shepherds to be out with sheep in midwinter. It seems that he was actually born in September.
Christmas is a bit of a mish mash. Its roots include the Roman Saturnalia, a week of gift giving, heavy drinking and eating and being merry, Christmas trees from the Asheira cult, mistletoe from the Druids, a Babylonian festival for the rebirth of the Sun God, pagan "Yule" rituals and finally Coca Cola who, in 1930 commissioned a Swedish artist to draw picture of Santa for an ad.
Whatever meaning you want to put on it, it's a nice way to get friends and family together. Sharing food is possibly the most ancient way for people to join in friendship and gives us the word "company" (com - together + pan - bread). And so, eating something good and a little bit special (i.e. not that you eat every day) is a nice touch.
People coming together to prepare the feast for me, is an important part of it.
So, eating mass produced fast food just seems terribly sad.
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Yubaru
For a westerner accustomed to the traditions associated with Christmas I would have to agree.
However for a country and culture that does not have any history or tradition of Christmas, nor any of the other "pagan" holidays that were convoluted together to make Christmas what it is today I don't agree with you.
I like to tell my Japanese friends that with regards to Christmas it really doesn't matter one bit what you eat, so long as it is spent together with family, friends and loved one's. The food is secondary.
0
m6bob
Chicken makes a good safe X'mas eve meal. Long may it continue. Merry Christmas in advance to all!
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Bluebris
Eating kfc at Christmas would make me feel like i'd hit rock-bottom.
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Scott Donald
Is Haruka doing the Christmas robot?
0
nstn123
Haven't eaten KFC for 20 yrs or so but anyways, Haruka looks cute in the outfit.
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Jasen Durant
Funny how the lowest of the low class fast food joint in America is considered at the top of the fast food places here.
0
Wolfpack
Japanese have "traditionally" been open to adopting foreign things, modifying them in some way, and making them their own. If there is no turkey than why not chicken? Makes sense to me. Now, if only 7-Eleven would start selling egg nogg...
0
risamamachan
I like KFC very much because of juicy and tasty the chickens are. When it comes to Christmas, KFC's bucket is so common when we have home parties or events. Is it appropriate for USA? KFC's head office is in USA, however, I have never seen in USA's. In Japan, big cities have KFC from South to North, we can easy to find the chain shop. How about USA? I would like to know the situation about the USA's.
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