'A £500,000 mistake' - James Watt counts cost of BrewDog gold can fiasco

The promotion, which Watt said was 'inspired by everything Willie Wonka' and ran between late 2020 and early 2021, saw BrewDog hide 50 'solid gold' cans in cases of its beer for customers to find. Each winner would not only get to keep the can, but would also receive £15,000 worth of BrewDog shares. 

However, the cans were later found to be merely gold-plated, leading to BrewDog being reprimanded Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)​​ and Watt having to pay out £470,000 of his own money to fix the problem.

“I got so carried away in the excitement of the project that I made some costly mistakes,” Watt wrote on LinkedIn​​.

“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 three of a total of 50 posts about the promotion but as it turns out, those three tweets were enough to do a lot of damage.”

Watt said that while the group's valuation of £15,000 per can was accurate, some of the winners had seen his earlier mention of the cans being ‘solid gold’ and complained when they realised they were only gold plated.

The ASA later got involved and ruled that we had run a misleading promotion. 

“We were made to look dishonest and disingenuous and we took a real hammering online and in the press,” Watt continued.

“Deservedly so. My initial tweets had been misleading and we deserved the flak. What was looking like one of the best campaigns in our history was now, decidedly, the worst.”

In a bid to rectify the problem, Watt said he got in touch with all 50 winners and let them know that if they were unhappy with their prize then he would offer them the full cash amount as an alternative, paid for out of his own pocket. 

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

At the time, the ASA said it had been contacted by 25 complainants who challenged whether the ads were misleading.

Upholding the complaints, the ASA said: “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.”

BrewDog has faced a troubling couple of years with the group forced​​ to carry out an independent review of its culture and HR practices​​ following accusations that it fostered a toxic working environment​​.

Watt himself has also come under fire, with an episode of BBC Scotland's Disclosure ​programme broadcast early last year accusing him of ​​inappropriate behaviour towards women and abuse of power in the workplace​​. Watt described the documentary as 'malicious' and 'based largely on untruths'. He 'utterly refuted' the characterisation of him and lodged ​​an official complaint against the state broadcaster​​.

More recently, BrewDog faced accusations of hypocrisy​​ over an 'anti-sponsorship' campaign it launched in the run-up to the Qatar World Cup after it was revealed the group would continue to show matches at its venues.

It also relinquished ​​its status as a B Corp​​ less than two years after gaining the accreditation.