Photo by Korea McDonald’s. Licensed under Brand. Courtesy Korea McDonald’s campaign press image; resized for web.
G-Dragon Is Holding the Bun for McDonald’s Gochujang Butter Push Across Asia
Korea McDonald’s built a gochujang butter sauce, cast Kwon Ji-yong as the face, and starts Sept. 17 with two chicken sandwiches before rolling the same sauce idea through 12 more Asian markets.
September 9, 2026
Korea McDonald’s announced on September 9 that G-Dragon will front a campaign built around a gochujang butter sauce the Korean company developed. The rollout starts in Korea on September 17, then moves market by market across Asia. Thirteen markets are in. The United States is not on the announced list.
The company is calling the pairing ICON × ICON: the burger chain and Kwon Ji-yong, the BigBang member better known as G-Dragon, who also runs the fashion label PEACEMINUSONE. A Korea McDonald’s representative said the collaboration should let customers across Asia enjoy a Korean-born K-wave and McDonald’s “feel-good moments.” Campaign stills put him in a black blazer and thick glasses, holding the sesame bun toward the camera.
Gochujang is the thick Korean chile paste built from grain, fermented soybean, and red pepper. Here it lands in a limited sandwich sauce with butter. In Korea the first two items are McCrispy Gochujang Butter and McSpicy Gochujang Butter: different chicken patties, the gochujang butter sauce, and Colby Jack cheese. The sauce also sells as a separate dip. Other markets will build their own menus on the same sauce idea. Some will put the word gochujang on the menu board itself.
Korea McDonald’s planned the campaign and is leading it. The sauce was developed in Korea, and the calendar starts there before traveling. Wolyo, a Korean business paper, reported after checking with the company that Japan is not among the thirteen markets. McDonald’s Singapore already teased the PEACEMINUSONE daisy drifting onto the golden arches on Instagram the same day as the Korean announcement.
Limited-edition PEACEMINUSONE goods are due at the end of September. Details are still unannounced. For now the food news is simpler: fermented chile heat cut with butter, on fried chicken and cheese, under G-Dragon’s name.
American drive-thrus are not part of this wave. In the Asian markets on the list, Korea starts serving on September 17, and the rest of the region follows with local builds of the same gochujang butter idea.