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Burger King UK has launched its most premium product to date, an £11 Wagyu burger, with Gordon Ramsay as its unlikely frontman. The BBH-created campaign, titled Not Made by Gordon, flips the logic of celebrity endorsement: Ramsay appears in the ads but is locked firmly out of the kitchen.
The premise is deliberate bravado. Felipe Serradourada Guimaraes, executive creative director at BBH London, said: “When you’re so confident in your product, you hire a celeb chef just to tell the world they had nothing to do with it. That’s pure Burger King.”
Katie Evans, CMO of Burger King UK, echoed the sentiment: “We’re celebrating the launch of our most gourmet burger yet, The Wagyu. So good you’d think a certain world-renowned chef had made it, but he didn’t. Sorry Gordon.”
The ads lean into slapstick. At one point Ramsay paces a Burger King car park, talking to himself: “Come on, let’s go, let’s get this done.” Then, in a car window: “Come on Gordon you can do this. Ready, G Force…” For a chef whose Chelsea flagship has held three Michelin stars for over two decades, it's hilariously steeped in irony. A man defined by authority reduced to pep talks in a parking lot.
Ramsay, speaking to the Independent, used the spotlight to champion provenance: “Everyone thinks that we need to draw on Japan for wagyu, or American wagyu, but to have our own British wagyu? Come on, let’s f***ing celebrate!” He added: “We’re going through one of the most difficult times in the hospitality sector… It’s brutal out there. When I put my head on my pillow tonight, it’s supporting the farmers.”
The campaign trades on reverse endorsement. By dramatising Ramsay’s exclusion, Burger King invites consumers to resolve the paradox: if it tastes like something he could have made, perhaps the product is elevated. It’s a play on scarcity and authority, borrowing Ramsay’s aura by withholding it.
The risk is balance. For Ramsay, attaching his name to mass-market fast food, even indirectly, risks eroding a brand built on precision and authenticity. For Burger King, irony alone cannot sustain premium positioning if the eating experience falls short (as with all ads, of course). But the upside is that if consumers embrace the paradox, the chain edges closer to owning the “accessible gourmet” space.
The creative runs across TV, print, radio and out-of-home, with the latter placing the burger centre-stage and Ramsay just out of frame, a visual tease of what “could have been.”
The campaign was produced through BBH’s in-house arm, Black Sheep Studios, with direction by Artur Wolgers and photography by Mark Peckmezian. Behind the marketing push sits Burger King UK’s master franchisee, Bridgepoint, which has held exclusive rights to the brand in Britain since 2017 under parent company Restaurant Brands International.
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Burger King UK says the burger is "Made from deliciously seasoned, 100% British wagyu beef, flame-grilled to perfection to take the rich, tender wagyu to the next level. Topped with sweet, caramelised onions, pink pickled onions, peppery rocket, crispy onions and a creamy layer of caramelised onion mayo, served in a soft, seeded brioche bun. Now available at restaurants nationwide."
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