BrewDog adverts banned by the ASA over ‘bottomless beer’ offer

The ASA has banned two BrewDog adverts for a “bottomless beer” offer, ruling that they encouraged excessive drinking and, in one case, presented alcohol as something that changes your mood. The ruling, published on 16 September, names Tilray Brands UK, which now owns BrewDog.

Both were paid Facebook posts seen in July, headed “BOTTOMLESS BEER ALERT!” and promising “90 minutes of unlimited fresh beer for just £19.95”. The first showed two men drinking under the caption “When bottomless beers start to hit you”, followed by a rapid sequence of twelve more drinks. The second showed a woman labelled “you” running towards a glass of beer.

Why the ASA banned the BrewDog adverts

On the first point, the ASA’s ruling turned on a facial expression. The two men looked neutral before drinking and “noticeably more satisfied and positive” afterwards, which, alongside “start to hit you”, the regulator read as alcohol changing mood. That breaches CAP Code rule 18.7, which says alcohol must not be portrayed as capable of changing mood, physical condition or behaviour.

On the second, BrewDog argued that the twelve drinks showed the range on offer and that the running woman was enthusiastic about a promotion, not about drinking. The ASA was unmoved on both. It said viewers would read the sequence as the quantity you could get through in ninety minutes, and that enthusiasm for the offer was “inseparable from enthusiasm for consuming unlimited alcohol”.

BrewDog maintains it did not break the code, but told the regulator it will bring in stronger review procedures, involve its legal team before publication and tighten oversight of local social media, Marketing Week reported.

A brand with form

This is at least the fifth upheld ASA ruling against BrewDog since 2021. The regulator’s own record lists a 2025 poster implying beer could cure boredom and loneliness, a 2022 email suggesting a fruit beer counted towards your five a day, and misleading promotions in 2021. For years that record was arguably part of the brand, the punk brewer needling the grown-ups.

The difference now is that nothing here was a provocation. It was a routine promotional post by a local team, the sort of thing every pub chain runs, and it fell foul of rules that are among the strictest in the UK advertising codes. The lesson for every other drinks marketer is dull but real: “bottomless” and “unlimited” are words the ASA will read literally, and social captions get no comedy discount. It joins a busy month in our running list of ASA rulings.