Five years ago Pabst Blue Ribbon rose like a phoenix from the ashes to become the official beer of the sad modern “counter-culture,” effectively branding itself as the adult beverage of choice for urban 20 and 30-somethings seeking to shed their pansy-ass realities and earn some hard street cred by creating a facade of being one with white-trash folk. But do the cool kids realize that the folks at Pabst who make and market their beloved “anti-establishment” beer of choice are also savvy capitalists who’ve been quite effective at making massive profits off of their “non-conformist” asses through slick marketing?

You see, PBR isn’t the cheapest beer by a long shot, and it tastes like shit to boot. But clever marketing created an illusion of hipness that doesn’t seem to be waning. Sales of PBR are up 25% this year despite the fact that Pabst raised its prices again:

The brand hiked prices this year, and a case of PBR now costs $1.50 more than MillerCoors’ Keystone, $1 more than Anheuser-Busch’s Busch and Natural brands, and 50 cents more than Miller High Life. And it’s growing at a faster clip than all of the aforementioned brands — all of which are growing this year — despite the higher price.

So one can assume that the spike in sales is essentially being driven by the increasing effectiveness of the company’s clever marketing campaign:

Back in 2004, Pabst executed a highly effective word-of-mouth campaign that made the long-declining brand an “ironic downscale chic” choice for bike messengers and other younger drinkers who viewed the beer as a statement of non-mainstream taste. PBR sales surged by nearly 17% that year, and have climbed at single-digit rates since, until this year, when the recession sent its sales soaring as more drinkers were pushed into the subpremium category. Think of it as conspicuous downscale consumption, or something like it. “There’s still a bit of hipness to it,” said Benj Steinman, editor of Beer Marketer’s Insights. “Of all the subpremiums, it’s got a little more cache.” “It’s an anti-establishment badge,” added a major market wholesaler. “It seems to play to the retro, nonconformist crowd pretty well.”

So isn’t about time we (Yes, I’ve dabbled in PBR on occasion.) all find a different “anti-establishment” beer to drink. Nattie Light and Miller High Life are both products of mega-corporations, so to hell with both of them. Personally, I’d like to nominate two tasty and inexpensive beers that could always be found in my Grandpa’s fridge when I was growing up: Dixie Beer and Schlitz. It’s time.

Photo by TheBeatCowboy