Gold cans mistake costs Brewdog boss £470,000
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Ellon headquartered Brewdog's boss James Watt has said in a post via LinkedIn that he has paid out almost £500,000 to winners of the company's "solid gold" beer can promotion.
Mr Watt explained that in his words he had made "some costly mistakes" in a promotion which offered people the chance to find a solid gold can hidden in cases in 2021.
But questions were raised by some of the winners over the actual worth of the cans, leading to complaints after they discovering they were in face gold-plated.
The co-founder of the company said he had misunderstood the process of how they were made and made a "silly mistake" by telling customers in initial promotional tweets that the cans were "solid gold cans".
The Advertising Standards Authority received complaints where were upheld.
In his statement Mr Watt said: "Those were three very expensive mistaken tweets that I sent out in my enthusiasm for our new campaign.
"The Gold Can saga was headline news.
"A simple misunderstanding born from my excessive enthusiasm about the campaign launch morphed into a frenzy, with attacks coming in from all quarters.
"I should have been more careful.
Mr Watt said: "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.
"Furthermore, I promised to fund this myself so the business did not have to suffer financially from my mistake.
"All in all, it ended up costing me around £470,000 – well over two and a half years ‘salary. "
