A BrewDog social media promotion that claimed customers could win "solid gold" beer can has been deemed misleading, by the Advertising Standards Authority.
The brewer was offering consumers the chance to find a gold can hidden in cases sold from its online store. But in two tweets and a Facebook post highlighted by the ASA, it alluded to the prize being made from "solid gold".
After receiving their prize, some winners complained to the ASA after they discovered the cans were not in fact solid gold but were gold-plated.
The ASA upheld the complaints made by 25 individuals and said three adverts were misleading.
BrewDog has attributed the error to a miscommunication between its marketing and social media teams.
In response, BrewDog said the cans were gold-plated rather than solid gold, and that its social media posts that contained the words "solid gold" did so in error. It said it amended the posts as soon as the error was noticed. However, as it was unable to amend tweets, rather than delete them, it ensured that subsequent posts dropped the word "solid", and all references thereafter were of just "gold cans".
BrewDog has accepted it should not have used the word "solid" in its initial tweets and has said it has apologised publicly for doing so.
As part a tongue-in-cheek, "gold-plated apology", BrewDog has started a new promotion offering the chance to win one of "10 diamond-encrusted gold cans or £25k cash equivalent".
In July, BrewDog came under fire for a hard seltzer ad that was banned for making misleading nutritional claims. In a paid-for Instagram post went live on 21 January 2021, an image of a can of Clean & Press Hard Seltzer, was displayed along with the text: “Due to advertising regulations we cannot claim this drink is healthy."
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