Diageo forced to apologise after BrewDog awards scandal

In a blog, BrewDog claimed that Diageo, a sponsor of the British Institute of Innkeeping award ceremony, had cheated Brewdog out of an award. According to the blog, BrewDog's name was engraved on the winner's trophy in the 'Bar Operator of the Year' category but the company was not announced as the winner.

It then went on to claim that Kenny Mitchell, chairman of the award committee, said that Diageo had said that "under no circumstances" could the award be given to BrewDog and threatened to pull its sponsorship from future events.

Using the hashtag #AndTheWinnerIsNot, Diageo and Brewdog’s complaint trended worldwide on Twitter.

Diageo’s apology, which was tweeted exclusively to @Marketinguk followers, said: "There was a serious misjudgement by Diageo staff at the awards dinner on Sunday evening in relation to the Bar Operator of the Year Award, which does not reflect in anyway Diageo’s corporate values and behaviour.

"We would like to apologise unreservedly to BrewDog and to the British Institute of Innkeeping for this error of judgement and we will be contacting both organisations imminently to express our regret for this unfortunate incident."

This article was first published on marketingmagazine.co.uk