Customers Can Thank Wendy's Dave Thomas For This Fan-Favorite KFC Menu Item

The world of fast food owes a lot to Dave Thomas. Just like Colonel Sanders, Dave Thomas was an innovator who developed practices and recipes to set his restaurant apart from the crowd. He introduced Wendy's square patties, made from fresh, never frozen beef, to signify that Wendy's didn't cut corners. He also added chili and Frostys on his menu, further setting the chain apart from the competition. 

But many don't know that he influenced other fast-food chains as well. At KFC, he was responsible for the chain's most iconic menu item: the branded bucket of chicken. Before branching out on his own, Dave Thomas worked for several other chains, including Arthur Treacher's. He spent several years as a KFC franchise owner, where he came up with the idea of putting Colonel Sanders' face on the paper buckets used for family meals.

KFC's official history states that Colonel Sanders and his first franchisee Pete Harman were already selling chicken in paper buckets after a different franchise operator ordered 500 of them. But Dave Thomas wrote in his biography that Sanders had only been selling chicken in three-piece boxes when Phil Clauss, Thomas' mentor, came up with the idea of buckets. The original buckets were coated in paraffin which melted and created a mess, so Clauss and Thomas refined the design together and created buckets similar to what we associated with KFC today. The buckets were so popular that Thomas also suggested using a giant revolving version on store signs.

During his time at KFC, Thomas did more than just design buckets. He gutted the menu which originally included far more than just fried chicken. Even after Thomas' time, the chain has tried to branch out to sell other products. KFC used to sell saucy ribs, and in 1952 you could get chicken livers and gizzards. Thomas believed the restaurant needed to focus on fried chicken as its main strength before worrying about anything else. "The key is to pick an attention-getting symbol or sign after you focus on your business, not before," he wrote in his autobiography.

Using buckets wasn't just practical; it was a marketing tool to showcase the product. At the time, the buckets were marketed as a way to save families time. They could buy a whole bucket of chicken and just add their own sides. But the Colonel's face, the stylized one we still recognize today, was right there on the side. Thomas also recommended that Colonel Sanders appear in commercials to further build brand recognition.

Thomas was clearly a good salesman. The stores that he was in charge of didn't have money to advertise, so he traded chicken for air time on the radio and TV. KFC was struggling before Thomas got involved. Today, it's one of the most recognizable chains in the world thanks to his understanding of how to sell a brand. He helped make the red and white stripes iconic, turning the bucket into a recognizable symbol alongside things like the Golden Arches or the shape of a Coca-Cola bottle.