Cass Beer hired Gordon Ramsay to call a mass-market lager 'great' — Korea laughed

In November 2017, Oriental Brewery (OB), the maker of Cass — South Korea's best-selling mass-market lager — hired Gordon Ramsay as brand ambassador. In the TV commercial, Ramsay drank Cass, called it 'great beer' and 'bloody fresh,' praised Korean food, and ordered another bottle. He described Cass as 'the beer of the people.' He also appeared on JTBC's Please Take Care of My Refrigerator on 11 December as part of the promotional push.

The reaction was widespread derision. Korean and international social media users mocked the endorsement, arguing that Cass is bland and that Ramsay — a chef whose brand is built on scrutinising quality — could not genuinely like it. One commenter jokingly offered a reward for proof Ramsay had ever drunk Cass before becoming its ambassador. British writer Daniel Tudor unfavourably compared Korean mass-market beers to North Korea's Taedonggang lager; Ramsay responded by threatening to give Tudor 'a kick in the arse.'

At a press event in Seoul, Ramsay said he was 'far from embarrassed' and insisted he had drunk Cass before the endorsement offer. The campaign was not pulled, but it became a case study in celebrity-endorsement credibility mismatch: a chef famous for demanding quality lent his name to a product the public considered unremarkable.