Brewdog boss forced to pay out £500,000 to winners after gold beer promotion mistake

BrewDog boss James Watt has had to pay out almost £500,000 to winners of a ‘solid gold’ beer can promotion after a ‘simple misunderstanding’ led to what he described as a ‘silly mistake’.

The Scottish brewer had offered people the chance to win 'solid gold cans', but 25 customers complained upon discovering the cans were actually gold-plated.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) later ruled that the promotion was misleading, while BrewDog admitted it 'messed up'.

Instagram/BrewDog

Watt, who is co-founder and CEO, has now revealed the stunt has ended up costing him almost £500,000, saying he made ‘costly mistakes’ after getting ‘carried away’ in the excitement of the project.

In a LinkedIn post, he wrote: “I falsely thought the cans were made from solid gold when they were indeed only gold plated.

“In my enthusiasm, I had misunderstood the process of how they were made and the initial tweets I sent out told customers of the prospect of finding ‘solid gold cans’.

“It was a silly mistake and it only appeared in around 3 of a total of 50 posts about the promotion but as it turns out, those 3 tweets were enough to do a lot of damage.”

Twitter

Watt continued: “Things started to go wrong when the winners got their cans. Despite the fact our valuation of £15,000 per can was accurate some of the winners had seen my earlier mention of ‘solid gold’ and complained when they realised they were only gold plated.

“The ASA got involved too and ruled that we had run a misleading promotion.”

The brewing chief said things then ‘blew up’ into a media storm, admitting: “I should have checked things before I got carried away. But it was too late.”

Watt said BrewDog was ‘made to look dishonest and disingenuous’, but that it was his mistake ‘alone’, and that he took it upon himself to ‘make things right’.

“I got in touch with all 50 winners and let them know that if they were unhappy with their prize I would personally offer them the full cash amount as an alternative,” he explained.

“Furthermore, I promised to fund this myself so the business did not have to suffer financially from my mistake.

BBC

“All in all, it ended up costing me around £470,000 – well over 2 and a half years ‘salary.

“Those were 3 very expensive mistaken tweets that I sent out in my enthusiasm for our new campaign.”

Watt concluded by saying the incident was a ‘damaging episode’ for the business, adding that he was now the ‘proud owner of 40 gold cans’.

The ASA's ruling said it 'understood the prize consisted of 24 carat gold-plated replica cans', but added 'because the ads stated that the prize included a solid gold can when that was not the case, we concluded the ads were misleading'.

The watchdog added: "We told BrewDog plc not to state or imply that consumers would receive a solid gold can when that was not the case.

"We also told them to conduct their promotions equitably and fairly, and to avoid causing unnecessary disappointment."

BrewDog went on to run a similar promotion again in October 2021, but made it clear that people would be in with the chance of winning one of 10 diamond encrusted gold-plated cans or a £25,000 ($34,000) cash equivalent – with winners chosen at random.