Who knows how much Gordon Ramsay is getting paid to be brand ambassador for Oriental Brewery’s Cass lager. But he’s certainly getting their brand into the news, at least in the English language press, both in the UK and Korea.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbsoL69Lo70
His current promotional tour to Korea, coinciding with his filming of an episode of Please Take Care of My Refrigerator, has been noted in the Guardian and the Sun. It has also been in covered in the Korea Times, Korea JoongAng Daily and Korea Herald, among others. It didn’t take long for people to comment on the generally poor quality of the big Korean beer brands. I’m not sure if I spotted any specific quote about Ramsay’s visit from craft beer aficionado, author and and former Economist correspondent Daniel Tudor – but his views on Korean beer are a matter of record – and Ramsay’s response is good copy: he
“wouldn’t worry much about what the British journalist said,” because he himself had gone through severe criticism throughout his career from food critics.
If he paid them much heed, he wouldn’t be where he is today, he said.
“But when I do meet him [Tudor], I will give him a kick in the ass,”
To be honest, if I’m having chimaek I don’t want a fancy beer and Cass is usually the one I go for in Korea. But if I want to have a proper drinking session I can’t engage with the bottled craft beer vs mass-produced lager debate: in Britain it has to be an English draught ale (or in Korea, soju and somaek).