Why KFC Paid to Put Colonel Sanders in an Obscure California High School Yearbook

One student's clever way to fund the production costs

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It’s hard to reach young people with advertising, especially in print. But one publication you know they consume obsessively is their high school yearbook. This spring, KFC is reaping the rewards of a hypertargeted media buy in just one yearbook—at the urging of a student.

Hannah Hightman reached out to advertisers through their agencies and got KFC to buy ad space in the form of a Colonel Sanders headshot, mixed in with all other headshots, in the new yearbook at Bear Creek High School in Stockton, Calif.

“Yearbooks

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