Ride the Buldak High
매운맛, 이번엔 타고 논다
Film
Campaign board
See the board ↗The translation and summary on this page were generated with AI. Some wording and proper nouns may be rendered imprecisely.
About the campaign
Buldak Bokkeummyeon had already become a global hit, but awareness of Buldak Sauce itself remained relatively low. Samyang's 'Ride the Buldak High' turned the familiar reaction — 'eating spicy food sets your backside on fire' — into witty vertical meme content, extending it into a game and a Coachella festival activation. With 337 million total views, it turned explaining the heat into something people imitated and shared, growing Buldak Sauce's presence globally.
AI summary
Buldak took the one thing everyone jokes about — the fiery aftermath of its ultra-spicy sauce — and turned it into the entire campaign. Instead of hiding the burn, it reframed that "butt on fire" feeling as a rocket launch and a euphoric "high," built vertical-first for meme-hungry Shorts and Reels feeds. A custom AR game and a Coachella pop-up let fans feel the blast-off for themselves. The payoff: 337 million views (nearly 69% of them organic) and a 75% jump in U.S. Amazon sales.
Cultural context
"Buldak" literally means "fire chicken" in Korean, so flames are baked into the brand name itself. The joke rests on a reaction Buldak fans everywhere share — the morning-after burn — reframed as a pleasurable "high," a nod to "runner's high." Samyang's aim was to make bottled Buldak Sauce a mainstream table staple alongside Tabasco and Sriracha.