REBRANDED: “Butter“ by Asako Yuzuki - MY LAUNCH CAMPAIGN

I’m kicking off 2026 with a Japanese cult classic: Butter by Asako Yuzuki, which melted my brain in the best way. It tells the story of a woman accused of killing men through cooking, a journalist who learns to enjoy food for herself, and the slow, sticky violence of misogyny. It’s true crime, it’s appetising, it’s furious about gender in a quite melancholic way. As I kept thinking about Rika and Kajii, one question would not leave me alone: what would a campaign look like if Butter wasn’t just a book you read, but a meal you step into?

In this episode of BOOK REBRANDING, I’ll look at the novel’s existing launch campaign, and then reimagine it with my own ideas that push its themes of cooking, hunger, and quiet rebellion further. FYI: the ideas I provide below are my own, and I came up with them as I was reading Butter – that is, before I researched the novel’s publishing journey, although some strategies overlap.

Original Marketing Strategy

The English translation of Butter, published by 4th Estate (HarperCollins UK) on February 29th, 2024, has already had a phenomenal run in the UK and beyond. I remember everyone talking about it and its striking cover that was all over Waterstones and Foyles long before I bought my personal copy. Butter grew from another translated text from a Japanese author to a full‑blown word‑of‑mouth sensation in under a year, powered by booksellers, food lovers, and readers hungry for feminist crime fiction.

It become a #1 bestseller in UK independent bookshops, won the Waterstones Book of the Year 2024 award, and “Debut Fiction“ at the British Book Awards.

In partnership with JACK ARTS and HarperCollins, Butter was given a giant creative billboard at Borough Market, London’s foodie epicentre, as part of its publicity campaign. The design looked like a block of butter being unwrapped, with golden “butter” literally dripping from the frame, turning commuters and market‑goers into unwillingly hungry passers‑by.

Author Azako Yuzuki in front of Butter billboard in Borough Market, London, UK. Read more about the installation here.

4th Estate and HarperCollins leaned into the book’s “foodie mystery” angle with mouth-watering posts across social media, chef collaborations recreating dishes from the novel, and thematic giveaways.

Giveaways on 4th Estate official Instagram page @4thestatebooks, pairing Butter with butter knives and culinary‑inspired candles from Nata Concept Store. Read more here.

Limited Butter enamel pins, produced by Foyles. Read more here

Butter’s campaign is smart and already ties together food, feminism, and crime in a memorable way. However, it does has even more untapped potential, such as Kajii’s recipes, Rika’s transformation, the way appetite becomes a conversation and language of defiance. That’s where the rebrand comes in.

My Reimagined Campaign

If Butter is a novel you can almost taste, the next step is obvious: feed the book to the readers. My ideas for its rebrand include the following:

🍽️ Butter Dining Experience

To create a memorable event, I would partner with Japanese‑inspired restaurants and host a Butter Supper Club. The menu would include comfort food from the novel: Kajii’s infamous boeuf bourguignon, rice with butter and soy sauce, turkey, and more key dishes. Each course would arrive with a small printed excerpt or line of dialogue, alongside a question about our relationship to power, shame, pleasure, and food. Think The School of Life’s Conversation Menus – ice breakers that invite guests to open up and leave the restaurant with both their stomachs and hearts full. This would spark buzz around the novel while also mirroring Rika’s journey from rushed, processed meals to slow, intentional eating.

🍳 Kajii’s Culinary Blog

In the novel, Kajii’s cooking and recipes are almost mythical; readers hear how the meals she prepares have transformative powers, but they don’t have access to her blog. A reimagined campaign can fill that gap. For this purpose, I would design a “Kajii’s Kitchen” website full of recipes from the novel, alongside essays and photographs of all sorts of food. Another fun idea would be to create a “Which butter dish should you try?” quiz that matches visitors with a recipe based on their attitudes to appetite, control, and pleasure. This would help make Kajii feel real, extend the world of the story beyond the page, and satisfy food‑content addicts.

🧑‍🍳 Live Cooking Masterclass

To spark early buzz and give media/influencers something to talk about, I would turn the publishing house into a kitchen for one night. I would host two intimate cooking classes inside 4th Estate’s space (or a hired kitchen studio) before publication. One session would be for influencers and press, and the other for readers who win a spot via a pre‑order competition. A professional chef would lead participants through one signature Kajii dish (for example, butter ramen or quatre quarts) step by step and in real time, just like Rika once she joins the culinary academy. This event would be a great chance to generate photo and video content, where participants can be gifted Butter aprons or cutlery.

🧈 All Things Butter Collaboration

Butter is such a visually and sensorially strong word that not partnering with an actual butter brand feels like a missed opportunity. For this, I would collaborate with All Things Butter – a flavoured butter brand that relies on eye‑catching packaging and is pretty big on social media at the moment. I’m thinking soy‑sauce butter, or something close enough that captures the flavour of Yuzuki’s debut novel.

In addition, I would ship advance copies to influencers in cool bags and produce limited‑edition butter‑block sleeves, so that opening the book’s packaging feels like unwrapping actual butter. The PR packages could also include small samples of butter from the above‑mentioned collab, a packet of premium‑quality ramen or rice, and maybe even a postcard from Tokyo’s detention centre.

Why This Matters

Butter is already a phenomenon: award‑winning and beloved by readers who want crime with a side of social commentary. The existing campaign leaned into food and vibrant visuals. It is smart, memorable, and effective.

A reimagined campaign like this would push things a step further by asking readers not just to watch Rika transform, but to participate in that transformation. They would be able to try the meals Rika eats, scroll through Kajii’s recipes and cook them at home, and feel that uneasy joy of eating “too much” and realising it might be the first time they’re actually feeling good in their bodies.

Because great campaigns don’t only sell a book; they let you immerse yourself in it – and once it’s over, remind you that you’ve been starving not only for a good read, but for your own life, too.