Gordon Ramsay has spent the better part of three decades making people feel terrible about their cooking. Now, he’s telling them to stop entirely.
Uber Eats has launched Who Could Cook At A Time Like This?, its first-ever global delivery advertising campaign, and it delivers the same kind of chaos that Kitchen Nightmares fans are accustomed to.
Launching across 17 markets on 11 June, the campaign casts Ramsay as the world’s most passionate anti-cooking advocate, going door-to-door during the biggest summer of football ever to drag home cooks away from their stoves and back to the couch.
The idea that started it all
The premise is delightfully simple: nobody wants to debone a sea bass during a penalty shootout.
Set to Dario G’s football anthem Carnival de Paris, the hero film sees Ramsay staging a series of increasingly dramatic kitchen interventions – berating unsuspecting home cooks for missing the match while fussing over their dinner.
Felix Richter, Global Chief Creative Officer at Mother, which created the campaign, said the contradiction at its heart was impossible to resist.
“The entire campaign started with one very funny contradiction: Gordon Ramsay, probably the world’s most famous chef, telling people this is absolutely not the time to cook. Once we had that, everything else flowed from there. Gordon brought the perfect level of intensity, comedy and chaos to it,” said Richter.
Ramsay, for his part, seemed entirely at peace with the brief.
“When the football’s on, nobody wants to be standing over the stove stressing about dinner. A night off from cooking isn’t the end of the world; it’s called priorities. Get the game on, order Uber Eats and enjoy it properly,” he said.
A global first, built on a universal truth
For Uber Eats, the campaign marks a genuine milestone – its first coordinated global push for delivery, rolling out across Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, and the US over five weeks.
Georgie Jefferies, Global Head of Marketing at Uber, said the ambition was to find an idea that travelled.
“We wanted to find the most over-the-top and entertaining way to play up a very real truth: when the game is on, people don’t want to cook,” said Jefferies.
“As our first-ever global delivery campaign, it was important to lead with an idea that was universal, simple, and culturally relevant for fans everywhere – while showing how Uber Eats helps fans get the food they want delivered straight to their door, without missing a moment of the action.”
Local flavour in a global campaign
The campaign doesn’t stop at a single hero film. A global social media programme will run throughout the tournament, alongside market-specific activations.
In France, Uber Eats has partnered with the French Football Federation on sponsorship idents featuring national team players, including Ousmane Dembélé, Dayot Upamecano, Lucas Digne, Maghnes Akliouche, Rayan Cherki, Theo Hernandez, Mike Maignan, and Désiré Doué.
Credits:
Client: Uber Eats
Global Head of Marketing: Georgie Jeffreys
Creative agency: Mother
Media agency: PHD
Production company: Biscuit Filmworks
Director: Jeff Low
Executive producer: Hanna Bayatti
Producer: Toby Courlander
PM: Matt Bulaitis
DP: Tom Townend
Production designer: Paul Austerberry
Home economist: Fergal Connolly
Wardrobe stylist (GR): Maureen Vivian
HMU (GR): Buster Knight
Wardrobe stylist (cast): Wiz Francis
HMU (cast): Eve Coles, Courtney-Reece Scott
Edit: Shift Post
Edit executive producer: Kirsty Oldfield
Editors: Saam Hodivala, Adam Buckmaster, Chris Mckay
Edit assist: Christina Hill
Post: Time Based Arts
VFX lead/supervisor: Stevo Grasso
Post producer: Chris Aliano
Colourist: Simone Grattarola
Sound: 750MPH
Sound engineers: Sam Ashwell, Jake Ashwell, Matthew Valentine
Sound head of production: Rachel Saxon
Music company: Mr Pape
Music supervisor: Sam Emery
Composer/arranger: Craig Brown
Publisher: Bucks Music Group
Master rights: Mr Pape
Talent broker: Mayflower Entertainment
Music: “Carnival de Paris”