Burger King UK taps Gordon Ramsay, only to say he didn’t make the burger

Burger King UK has rolled out a cheeky new campaign featuring celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay only to stress that its new £11 Wagyu beef burger is not made by him. The limited-time burger, available across the UK from September 9, features British Wagyu beef, caramelised onion mayo, rocket, and onions served three ways.

The tagline, “Not Made by Gordon”, leans into Ramsay’s fiery, larger-than-life persona while giving Burger King bragging rights for sourcing wagyu closer to home.

Traditionally associated with Japan, wagyu beef has slowly been making its way into the UK food landscape through cross-breeding with British dairy cattle. The campaign positions Burger King as a champion of British farms while borrowing Ramsay’s culinary credibility without turning him into the chef behind the counter.

The creative push, executed by BBH’s in-house arm Black Sheep Studios, plays out across TV, digital, and OOH. The films comically show Ramsay angling to be part of the burger’s creation, only to be kept on the sidelines. 

The OOH creatives put the burger front and centre, with Ramsay peeking in from the sidelines — a playful nod to what could have been.

While the campaign is UK-specific, it’s an interesting move for Burger King, which operates nearly 600 outlets in Britain and around 400 in India. For Indian audiences, Ramsay’s association is bound to spark curiosity, especially since the chef recently opened his first Street Burger outlet in India at Delhi Airport’s Terminal 3.

The contrast is stark: Ramsay’s fine-dining ethos sits worlds apart from Burger King’s flame-grilled fast-food approach, yet the collaboration works because it taps into Ramsay’s pop-culture currency rather than his kitchen skills.

In a food landscape increasingly driven by storytelling, Burger King UK’s move feels like a wink to both loyalists and meme culture — reminding us that sometimes, the best way to sell a burger is by making sure the world knows who didn’t cook it.