Samyang’s employee-led YouTube channel tops 2 mil. views in 3 months
0 
0 
A scene from the “Fire or Fired” series on Samyang Roundsquare’s YouTube channel samyangman / Courtesy of Samyang Foods
Samyang Roundsquare, the parent company behind the Buldak spicy instant noodle maker Samyang Foods, said Monday its YouTube channel samyangman has surpassed 2 million cumulative views about three months after its launch in August.
The channel airs “Fire or Fired,” an original series from BURNT, the company’s spicy food content brand. The show follows Tony, a Samyang employee who struggles with spicy food, as he tries fiery local dishes in New York, Texas, Los Angeles and other parts of the United States.
Tony is what Koreans jokingly call a “maepjjiri,” slang for someone with a low tolerance for spicy food. Instead of hiring celebrities or influencers, the company cast its own employee, who interacts with locals on camera.
The seven episodes released so far have drawn more than 2.18 million views as of Sunday. The most-watched episode, featuring a visit to Samyang America, the company’s U.S. subsidiary, logged 770,000 views, followed by episodes filmed in Nashville, Tennessee, and New Mexico.
Viewers in the United States accounted for about 45 percent of total views, while those outside Korea, including Canada, Britain and Australia, made up about 99 percent.
The company said comments have been largely positive, with viewers praising the marketing as clever and fresh, and that interest in Tony’s character is growing.
“We will continue to introduce food and culture from various countries and release original content that highlights the personalities and stories of our cast members,” a Samyang Roundsquare official said. “Through content that global consumers can relate to and enjoy, we will strengthen the competitiveness of our own intellectual property and broaden our connections with consumers.”
Samyang Roundsquare launched BURNT in May as a “spicy media house” that seeks to expand spiciness into culture and experience. It also runs other original series such as “Spicy Blind Date” and “Can You Handle the Burn.”
This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.
