BrewDog's chief executive has revealed that his solid gold can competition - which fell foul of the authorities - cost him around £470,000 to put right.
In November 2020, the Ellon-based brewery announced on social media that it would be hiding 50 'solid gold' cans of Punk IPA in 12 packs.
Each winner would not only get to keep the can, but would also receive £15,000 worth of BrewDog shares.
The beer company's boss explained over the weekend on LinkedIn that inspired by Willie Wonka he found a goldsmith to make the can.
"However, I got so carried away in the excitement of the project that I made some costly mistakes," the post read.
"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."
The wording appeared in just three of 50 social posts, but winners quickly began to call foul, with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruling it a misleading promotion.
It received complaints from 25 people who understood that the prize was not made from solid gold and challenged whether the adverts were misleading.
The ASA said investigators were told by BrewDog that a single 330ml can, made with the equivalent of 330ml of pure gold, would have a gold value of about £363,000.
The cans given away as part of a promo were worth around £15,000.
"We were made to look dishonest and disingenuous and we took a real hammering online and in the press - 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," Watt commented.
In an attempt to rectify the mistake, he got in touch with all 50 winners and offered them the full cash amount as an alternative, funding this from his own money - with it ending up costing well over two-and-a-half years' salary.
This has resulted in Watt being the owner again of 40 gold-plated beer cans, with the conclusion of his LinkedIn confession asking for suggestions on what to do with them.
Comments proposed auctioning them for charity, turning them into a chandelier, melting them all into one actually solid gold super can, using them as employee recognition awards or making them incentives in the next Equity for Punks funding round.
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