Brewdog has been rapped by advertising watchdogs over a competition where customers won beer cans wrongly billed as being made of 'solid gold'.
The craft brewer launched two promotions where 15 of the cans were hidden inside multi-packs of their beers and they said each was worth £15,000.
However, it turned out the cans were only gold plated and contained a tiny amount of the precious metal.
The Advertising Standards Authority(ASA) launched an investigation after 25 people complained that the prize was not made from solid gold.
Brewdog told the ASA that the 'solid gold' claim in three social media posts had been made in error and that they had publicly apologised for it.
However the firm, who are based in Ellon, Aberdeenshire, stood by their estimate that the winning cans were worth £15,000.
BrewDog has been rapped by the advertising watchdog after posting ads on social media (pictured) stating customers could win solid gold cans when in fact the prizes were gold plated
The adverts (pictured) were ruled as misleading and have been banned with the watchdog stating they 'caused unnecessary disappointment' for participants of the competition
The advertising watchdog has now banned the adverts, which were posted in November 2020 and February this year, and said they breached the Advertising Code by making misleading claims.
It comes after the company has faced heavy criticism this year after a letter from ex-workers complained about the workplace environment at the brewing giant.
In June the brewer was accused of perpetuating a 'culture of fear' in the workplace by former staff. Mr Watt apologised and pledged to launch an investigation into the claims.
In a written ruling, the ASA said: 'Each of the ads (a), (b) and (c) stated that the prize included a 'solid gold' can. Ad (a) also stated the can was 'worth £15K'.
'We considered a general audience was unlikely to be aware of the price of gold, how that would translate into the price of a gold can, and whether that was inconsistent with the valuation as stated in the ad.
'However, we understood the prize consisted of 24 carat gold-plated replica cans.
BrewDog was founded by Martin Dickie and James Watt (pictured) and has faced criticism from ex-workers over allegations the company fostered a 'culture of fear' as a workplace
'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.
'We considered that because the awarded prize was not the same as that described in the ads, the promotion caused unnecessary disappointment to participants and therefore breached the Code.
'We told BrewDog not to state or imply that consumers would receive a solid gold can when that was not the case.
'We also told them to conduct their promotions equitably and fairly, and to avoid causing unnecessary disappointment.'
Mark Craig,
