The Scottish brewer and operator launched the competition where 10 people could find a “24-carat gold can” of its beer, hidden in a case.
The BBC reported Mark Craig from Lisburn, Northern Ireland requested a valuation of the can following his win to find out it was made of gold-plated brass.
Erroneous use
A spokesperson for BrewDog said: “We have reached out to Mark privately to apologise for the erroneous use of the phrasing ‘solid gold’ in some of the communications around the competition.
“Once the error was flagged by our internal teams, we immediately removed or changed all such mentions.
“This error may have informed his complaint regarding the value of the can. The phrasing in question was never included in the detailed terms and conditions of the competition, nor in the wording informing the lucky winners of their prize, which also included £10,000 in equity in BrewDog.
“We believe the valuation of the can at £15,000 is reasonable based on multiple factors – including the price we paid for its manufacture, the constituent metal and quality of the final product, the standard retail mark-up and the rarity and uniqueness of the cans."
Free competition prize
The spokesperson added: “As a collective item – only 50 have been made – its value is somewhat detached from the cost of materials.
“As the gold cans were created as a free competition prize and not for sale in the open market, we cannot guarantee, nor offer comment on its open market value.”
In a statement to the BBC, the Advertising Standards Authority said a complainant had challenged if the claim the can was solid gold was “misleading” as well as if another ad was also “misleading” as the can was not worth £15,000.
The advertising watchdog added it was looking into the complaint to work out if further action was needed or not.
The Morning Advertiser understands BrewDog’s valuation of the can reflected the rarity of it and the materials used to make it were worth thousands of pounds.