CRAFT brewer Brewdog has been rapped by advertising watchdogs over a competition where customers had the chance to win beer cans made of ‘solid gold’.
The Advertising Standards Authority(ASA) launched an investigation after 25 people complained the prize was not made from solid gold.
Brewdog made the offer in twop romotions where 15 of the cans were hidden inside multi-packs of their beers and said each was worth £15,000.
However, it turned out the cans were only gold plated and contained a tiny amount of the precious metal.
While it stood by the claim the winning cans were worth £15,000, the Aberdeenshire firm apologised for the ‘solid gold’ claim in three social media posts, claiming they had been made in error.
And it has responded to the ASA’s ruling by launching a new version of the competition – this time giving people the chance to win diamond-encrusted gold-plated cans, which the brewer says are worth £25,000 each.
In a written ruling on the original ads, which were posted in November 2020 and February this year, the ASA said they were misleading.
“Each of the ads (a), (b) and (c) stated that the prize included a ‘solid gold’ can. Ad (a) also stated the can was ‘worth £15K’.
“We considered a general audience was unlikely to be aware of the price of gold, how that would translate into the price of a gold can, and whether that was inconsistent with the valuation as stated in the ad.
“However, we understood the prize consisted of 24 carat gold-plated replica cans. Therefore, because the ads stated that the prize included a ‘solid gold’ can when that was not the case, we concluded the ads were misleading.
James Watt, co-founder of Brewdog, said: “We hold our hands up, we got the first gold can campaign wrong.
“Whilst we still stand by the valuation, we made mistakes which we’ve learnt from.
“And now we want to give ten lucky people the chance to win big – way, way bigger than before. It’ll be a short campaign over ten days, and we’ll contact a new winner each day to let them know they’ve won.”
