"These sho am Quality Folks"
November 7, 2008 2:47 PM   Subscribe

 
Heineken? FUCK THAT SHIT...!

Neat stuff.
posted by brundlefly at 2:55 PM on November 7, 2008


Interestingly, Pabst has rejected an ad campaign pandering to this new market, as they believe that embracing this tongue-in-cheek popularity will illegitimize the old school authenticity that brought it on.

Smart move.
posted by brundlefly at 2:56 PM on November 7, 2008 [2 favorites]


They sure get a lot of milage out of an award they won in 1893.
posted by mazola at 2:59 PM on November 7, 2008 [4 favorites]


Cue "hipster" bashing that's about four years too late in 3 ... 2 ...
posted by joe lisboa at 3:01 PM on November 7, 2008 [3 favorites]


Fucking hipsters
posted by mrnutty at 3:02 PM on November 7, 2008 [3 favorites]


BDD wouldn't agree. What better an appeal than "9 out of 10 hipsters prefer the authenticity of Pabst Blue Ribbon"
posted by anthill at 3:03 PM on November 7, 2008


They hay have changed their advertising over the years, but Pabst still enjoys the same great taste.
posted by gman at 3:06 PM on November 7, 2008


mrnutty, i'll buy ya a cold one (PBR or no) just for that. Seriously. My Friday night is startin' with a smile (and a High Life, for the record). Cheers, mefites.
posted by joe lisboa at 3:11 PM on November 7, 2008


Hipsters don't drink PBR. Hipsters smoke marihuana and listen to Ornette Coleman. Creeps with full-sleeve tattoos, bowling shirts, shaved heads, and a tendency to hang out at rock and roll clubs where everybody is 10 years younger than them drink PBR. I don't know what you call those guys. Record store clerks?
posted by Astro Zombie at 3:13 PM on November 7, 2008 [9 favorites]


Once I went to this place in Chicago, sat down at the bar and ordered a Heineken. The guy next to me turned and pretty much shouted the "fuck Heineken, Pabst Blue Ribbon!!!" line.
At the time I was unfamilliar with the finer points of "Blue Velvet", so all I could think of was "ohmygodohmygod I am so going to get killed here, please dear sir I'm nothing but a lowly swedish tourist and I mean no harm".
The guy must have sensed my lack of knowledge regarding Lynch, so he explained his outburst. Then we talked about selling pot and then we saw Low together.
And that's my PBR story. Not a great one, but every time I see that ribbon I'm in Chicago, fearing for my life.
posted by soundofsuburbia at 3:16 PM on November 7, 2008 [4 favorites]


MetaFilter: Perfect health - steady nerves - a good digestion.
posted by Dumsnill at 3:20 PM on November 7, 2008 [1 favorite]




the political and civil tides in the US were changing dramatically. Pabst was seemingly quick to understand this and published what I believe is one of the first interracial beer advertisements.

Uh, no. Not even remotely possible for them to have done this, on the one hand. On the other, the couple in the ad are clearly light-skinned ("high yellow" in an older vernacular) blacks and the woman has straightened her hair. Having the guy work at a hobby associated with upper-class whites is a typical bid at overcompensation vis-a-vis the bellboy a few ads up the page. The intriguing subtext of sailing seems to suggest even further a shot at normalizing blacks. I don't know that a real black audience would be that interested in sailing, but they might have other associations for seagoing vessels.
posted by dhartung at 3:25 PM on November 7, 2008


Pabst in a can? I'd tap that.
posted by salishsea at 3:26 PM on November 7, 2008


Schlitz is actually better beer.
posted by jonmc at 3:26 PM on November 7, 2008 [1 favorite]


As an ad geek, that 1913 full-page magazine ad is surprisingly modern. Tagline, brand, slogan, and logo shoved to the side to highlight a full-bleed photo stripped of everything except the product and the symbols of happy people and better living.

That wouldn't become common until the 1950s, and not be the standard until the 1980s.
posted by ardgedee at 3:30 PM on November 7, 2008 [2 favorites]


Jonmc, wanna split a six of Schlitz?
(sorry, working on my tongue-twisters, but yeah, your aesthetic point probably stands, too.)
posted by joe lisboa at 3:30 PM on November 7, 2008


"To an ad geek..."
posted by ardgedee at 3:31 PM on November 7, 2008


PBR has been brewed by Miller since 1999, and PBR is effectively a marketing company.

That said, they've had some good advertising over the years. Including this article.
posted by gurple at 3:31 PM on November 7, 2008


I drink PBR. Because I usually get a 6'er of tallboy cans at the store for $4. I like PBR.
posted by ninjew at 3:33 PM on November 7, 2008


OK, it's well agreed that PBR isn't great beer by any means, but if you live in the Upper Midwest you have to consider the facts:

1) It tastes somewhat like beer,
2) It's reasonably inexpensive,
3) It doesn't make you go blind.

It's not my first, second, third, or fourth choice, but if I'm low on funds and need a cheap case, it beats Black Label.

Favorite PBR drinking moment (that I can remember): Sitting around with my roommates watching Raging Bull and drinking PBR when the "bar TV" view of the fight cuts to the old-school style PBR ad and the announcer starts talking about how cool and refreshing a good Pabst Blue Ribbon is. We all got a huge laugh out of it as we toasted.
posted by baphomet at 3:38 PM on November 7, 2008


Schlitz is actually better beer.

Fucker. You made me blow Lucky Lager out of my nose and onto my monitor.
posted by eyeballkid at 3:38 PM on November 7, 2008


We can agree that Lucky Lager blows.
posted by mazola at 3:41 PM on November 7, 2008 [1 favorite]


Just how did Pabst become the preferred beer of hipsters, or at least perceived that way? Living around Chicago all my life, its always been just another beer in the cooler next Miller, Old Style, Bud, and the rest.
posted by hwestiii at 3:47 PM on November 7, 2008


Y’know, uh, Frank was the bad guy in that film. Pretty psychotic really. Sucked amyl nitrite. Multiple rapist and murderer, child kidnapper.
...classic taste in cars tho. Still...
(never understood why Paul Atreides didn’t kill him with a word)

Pabst is indeed like having sex in a canoe.

But it’s a darn good scrabble word.
posted by Smedleyman at 3:49 PM on November 7, 2008


There's a section in Charlie Papazian's book 'The Complete Joy of Homebrewing' about how lighter, less flavorful beers came to be so favored in America. In short, it was WWII and the sending abroad of a vast number of American men that left women behind to work and develop a previously unknown influence on the market.

One more thing to blame on the Nazis.
posted by Pecinpah at 3:56 PM on November 7, 2008 [2 favorites]


So Rolling Rock isn't the only beer fixated on the number 33
posted by StickyCarpet at 3:58 PM on November 7, 2008


Fucker. You made me blow Lucky Lager out of my nose and onto my monitor.

You're welcome. But I'm serious, PBR has a weird syrupiness too it, Rheingold, too.
posted by jonmc at 4:01 PM on November 7, 2008


On a camping trip this summer, we had a mix of PBR, High Life, and Schaefer in a trash can full of ice, and the PBR was the clear winner on taste. That first ice-cold PBR of the weekend was like heaven in an aluminum can. I used to prefer High Life, but lately it just tastes like rotten corn to me.

I love old beer ads, though. This is neat.
posted by uncleozzy at 4:06 PM on November 7, 2008


The obvious elephant in the room is that this advert is culturally insensitive.

This is a really absurd commentary. The ad isn't "insensitive", it is a direct and explicit appeal to white supremacy -- drink Pabst and confirm your place at the top of the racial hierarchy. It is amazing how many people can only interpret racism in terms of ignorance causing hurt feelings. The people who designed this ad weren't culturally insensitive; on the contrary, they were very well attuned to the social structure of the USA in 1938.
posted by stammer at 4:07 PM on November 7, 2008 [8 favorites]


Y’know, uh, Frank was the bad guy in that film. Pretty psychotic really. Sucked amyl nitrite. Multiple rapist and murderer, child kidnapper.
...classic taste in cars tho.

Classic taste in music, too
.
posted by Bookhouse at 4:14 PM on November 7, 2008


Sho am quality hipsters!
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 4:18 PM on November 7, 2008 [1 favorite]


Schlitz is actually better beer.

I can tell you from personal experience that Schlitz is not as good as PBR. They were selling forties of Schlitz Bull Ice for 99c a pop last winter at the discount beer store down the street, and no matter how drunk I got, Schlitz still tasted like carbonated ape urine.

PBR is almost tolerable in comparison.
posted by dunkadunc at 4:18 PM on November 7, 2008


I went to college. In college I learned only three truly important things.

1 How to get laid.

2 How to talk to people.

3 What beer is good and what beer is not good.

PBR is not good beer.
posted by tkchrist at 4:20 PM on November 7, 2008 [1 favorite]


This sho am Quality Post.
posted by paisley henosis at 4:25 PM on November 7, 2008


I went to college. In college I learned only three truly important things.

One out of three correct is pretty bad. I'd see if I could get my money back.

ZING!
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 4:29 PM on November 7, 2008




Schlitz is better. It's my favorite of the budget beers in this troubled economy. Plus, it's why Milwaukee is so goddamned famous. And it made a fool of Jerry Lee.
posted by gordie at 4:39 PM on November 7, 2008


Creeps with full-sleeve tattoos, bowling shirts, shaved heads, and a tendency to hang out at rock and roll clubs where everybody is 10 years younger than them drink PBR.

Damn that's harsh. I actually prefer Bud. And replace "Bowling Shirts" with "Threadless".


Just how did Pabst become the preferred beer of hipsters, or at least perceived that way?


It was bought by Miller in 1999 and they did some marketing studies, and cuz of Blue Velvet and the 70s-looking can they decided to viral market it in the Northwest to young cool people. It worked, somehow, possibly because it's pretty good too.

Recently Bush has been doing the same thing with Schlitz.
Everyone knows real hipsters only drink National Bohemian.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 4:42 PM on November 7, 2008 [1 favorite]


REAL hipsters are Straight Edge.
posted by DU at 4:48 PM on November 7, 2008


Plus, it's why Milwaukee is so goddamned famous. And it made a fool of Jerry Lee.

I think you'll find it made a loser out of him, sir.
posted by jonmc at 4:50 PM on November 7, 2008


Correction: It's Strohs that's been marketing Schlitz as an irony-licious youngster choice. But I still like it, don't get me wrong. I just think everyone should realize when they've been affected by clever product placement.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 4:53 PM on November 7, 2008


Living in Portland, Oregon, the Microbrewery Capital of the World, I discovered that lots of hardcore beer snobs and brewers LOVE Pabst Blue Ribbon. I prefer its traditional name, Portland's Best Refreshment.
posted by mullingitover at 4:57 PM on November 7, 2008 [1 favorite]


I haven't had Schlitz in ages. Do they still make it in the stubby little bottles.....or wait, was that Blatz?

I'm nowhere near the beer drinker I used to be, but PBR and Genny Cream Ale make up the bulk of it for me these days. Sometimes Stroh's too--Dad always drank Stroh's while we watched the Browns(it was actually still brewed in Detroit then), so it's mostly a nostalgia thing. I hate anything Anheuser-Busch anyway, and I actually prefer any of the 3 over Miller, too. I save stuff like Sam Adams and Guinness for a treat.

PBR especially is pretty good stuff for the budget beer segment.
posted by spirit72 at 4:58 PM on November 7, 2008


My favorite budget beer is unfortunately not available in California. I'm talkin' about Old Style! A few years ago, when I was living in downtown LA, I came across a bar with a big Old Style sign out front, just like countless places in the midwest - it was early evening and I hadn't had a meal yet, but I charged in and demanded an Old Style just the same. The bartender looked at me like I was speaking Martian. I was not happy, and had to drown my disappointment in, you guessed it, PBR.

The bar, btw, was Bar 107, which at the time was underpopulated, friendly, and awesome. Shortly thereafter it became a very popular downtown bar for the 20-something tight pants crowd and I was forced to give it up, not because it lost friendliness, but because shoulder to shoulder shouting is not what i look for in a hangout.
posted by thedaniel at 5:05 PM on November 7, 2008


You people keep drinking your PBR. More good beer for me.
posted by Big_B at 5:05 PM on November 7, 2008


I'm someone who was turned on to Pabst by Blue Velvet. I really got into that movie as a teenager, and was blown away when I got to college and discovered that PBR was not fictional.
posted by brundlefly at 5:08 PM on November 7, 2008


You people keep drinking your PBR. More good beer for me.

Nah, the PBR is for after you're too drunk on good beer to notice anymore.
posted by uncleozzy at 5:09 PM on November 7, 2008


PBR's not to my taste, but I appreciate, in the usual conflicted way, their corporate blood money when they use it to sponsor alleycat races and stuff like that.
posted by box at 5:14 PM on November 7, 2008


I always found the evolution of Michelob beer to be particularly interesting as they essentially provide a blueprint for a path to alcoholism.

In the Seventies, "Holidays are made for Michelob."

In the Eighties, "Weekends were made for Michelob."

Then, "The night belongs to Michelob."
posted by flarbuse at 5:21 PM on November 7, 2008 [9 favorites]


One out of three correct is pretty bad. I'd see if I could get my money back.

ZING!


Perhaps you are unfamiliar with the concept of a "zinger."

A. One has to feel "Zanged."

B. Usually a zinger is somewhat amusing.

C. Lastly the zinger has to make contextual sense.

In this case are you saying YOU only learned one out of my three college lessons? IE: a self-deprecating zinger. Which would humanize the attempt and make it less douchie, but still not very funny.

—Or— that I only learned one out of the three?

In which case, you not being me, the latter is impossible for you to objectively evaluate and can only guess at which lessons I learned. Which seems an excessively covetous exercise.

Now. Since: I did learn to talk to people, it now being 80% of my job for which I earn a ridiculous amount of money; And I did get laid rapaciously in college it being the days pre-AIDS; And I did learn, albeit subjectively, that PBR sucks shit, I will assume it's the former.

In either case. Keep your day job.

ZING!
posted by tkchrist at 5:29 PM on November 7, 2008 [1 favorite]


So, how about that Schmidt?
posted by maxwelton at 5:36 PM on November 7, 2008


Barney: Hey Moe, what'll you give me for an AA chip?

Moe: Barney, this is a 5 minute chip. Eh, it's worth a Pabst.
posted by theroadahead at 5:46 PM on November 7, 2008 [1 favorite]


Anything that cannot be drunk unironically is instantly suspect. Except OK Soda, but that stuff isn't made anymore.
posted by Astro Zombie at 5:48 PM on November 7, 2008


If you're gonna drink weird shit for hipster points, drink something your grandpa actually drank - Olympia in a can, by god!
posted by notsnot at 5:57 PM on November 7, 2008 [1 favorite]


When thinking of bad beer, the brand that leaps to mind is Stag. Looking around online, I found it's a Pabst subsidiary. Some of the reviews on this site hit the nail on the head, especially:
"When you're one of Pabst's lower beers, you know you're dealing with a fun demographic."
posted by theroadahead at 5:59 PM on November 7, 2008 [1 favorite]


My grandfather drank Slivovitz. Because he was a man, not a boy pretending to be a man.
posted by Astro Zombie at 5:59 PM on November 7, 2008 [1 favorite]


Screw Pabst, they just brought Narragansett back. That's something this New England hipster can get behind.
posted by billypilgrim at 6:47 PM on November 7, 2008


I never got the Pabst=Hipster drink until I played a show in a Rhode Island bar. In WI, Pabst is just another regular priced normal beer. It seems on the East Coast its the bargain basement beer. (The Milwaukee equiv. would be Blatz or Huber)
posted by drezdn at 7:07 PM on November 7, 2008


I can tell you from personal experience that Schlitz is not as good as PBR. They were selling forties of Schlitz Bull Ice for 99c a pop last winter at the discount beer store down the street, and no matter how drunk I got, Schlitz still tasted like carbonated ape urine.

There is a Schlitz without a bull made especially for white people and it's better than PBR. And don't buy beer with the word "Ice" on the label and expect anything that tastes better than ape urine.

Schaefer is best in my book, New Yorkers like jonmc should adopt it as their own.
posted by peeedro at 7:23 PM on November 7, 2008


At least in the pacific nw, PBR is massively better than anything else in its price bracket — would you really rather drink Busch Lite, or Miller Lite, or Miller High Life? I prefer malt liquor to any of that shit.

Sure, I'd rather drink a Henry Weinhart's variety, like their Classic Dark or their Private Reserve — but that's usually about $1 a bottle, and PBR is often under ¢60 a can. The tallboy cans are usually even cheaper by volume.

PBR is not a great beer, but it is certainly a good one.
posted by blasdelf at 7:48 PM on November 7, 2008


FYHI, the Canadian equivalent of PBR just might be Molson Stock Ale. It's actually pretty good, and the only Molson product a brewmaster-in-training friend drinks.
posted by anthill at 7:49 PM on November 7, 2008


That 1940 ad is so fascinatingly suggestive: who knew hinting at bondage fun would sell back in the day? I can't decide which element is the more risque; the woman's rather tonguesome expression of enthusiasm or the seemingly excited way the bottle juts into her frame.
posted by mr.grum at 8:01 PM on November 7, 2008


i like good beer, but sometimes you want something that's relatively light and refreshing, crisp and clean - and pbr does this well - and at 14.99 for a 30 pack of cans, it's a bargain - and a damn site better than the rest of the american macro lager swill that people drink

i don't get the hipster connection as in MI, it's just beer

the only thing i have against pbr is that it's not stroh's - but that's hard to find - in MICHIGAN, for pete's sake

so it's not victory storm king, or old ruffian, or arrogant bastard, or bell's amber, but i still say pbr is a decent brew for what it sets out to be
posted by pyramid termite at 9:17 PM on November 7, 2008 [1 favorite]


If you don't mind the startup costs, you can brew your own beer; about $20 for five gallons. (Roughly 53 cans, for those keeping track at home.) And it tastes way the hell better than PBR.
posted by kaibutsu at 9:50 PM on November 7, 2008


Interestingly, Pabst has rejected an ad campaign pandering to this new market, as they believe that embracing this tongue-in-cheek popularity will illegitimize the old school authenticity that brought it on.

Smart move.


Naaah. They're just going for the old school authenticity dollar. Huge market.
posted by DreamerFi at 10:15 PM on November 7, 2008


Look (or read, as the case may be), all you people complaining about PBR being a shitty beer... you are correct, kinda. PBR is the KING of shitty beers. Pyramid Termite is totally correct when he notes PBR is light, refreshing, crisp, and clean, but what he leaves out of the analysis is that beers with those qualities are precisely those lacking in complexity and heft. However, the Pibber has a distinct advantage over all of the beers out there that are best enjoyed with an air of content contemplation: it is roughly one-quarter of their price. Say what you will about the ironic hipster cachet of a tall-boy of PBR, but don't deny that it will cost you 2 bucks less than the bottle/draft of whatever other light/crisp/clean/refreshing/bangbackable beer is available and taste better than the other I'm-too-poor-to-actually-be-drinking-but-I'm-doing-it-anyway set. Pabst Blue Ribbon is at the top of the bottom of the long list of beers I've drunk, but is at the top of the top of long list of beers I've been drunk on for precisely these reasons.

The above rant is best enjoyed with a shot of Maker's followed by a PBR.
posted by Panjandrum at 10:20 PM on November 7, 2008


Me, I like to drink wine from Thomas Jefferson's collection and follow it with goat urine.
posted by Astro Zombie at 10:53 PM on November 7, 2008


I haven't had Schlitz in ages. Do they still make it in the stubby little bottles.....or wait, was that Blatz?

I've been trying to remember the name of the beer I used to get in pony bottles in a hole-in-the-wall store under Grand Central back in the early '80s when cheap beer in pony bottles was all I could afford... maybe it was Schlitz? Don't think so. I'll have to contact one of my ex-drunk friends and see if they remember.

But we were talking about Pabst. Neat link, even if the guy is shaky on his history; I'm just sorry he didn't include the classic "What'll You Have? Pabst Blue Ribbon" tune. Fortunately, I found a page that does; the first link has the immortal lyrics, and the tune is tastefully alluded to in the third (proto-steampunk) ad. The second ignores it in favor of some weird polka-fried tune; in fact the whole ad looks like some alternate-universe version of America in which bars are replaced by German beer halls and everyone sways back and forth to the gemütlich music. But where are the lederhosen?
posted by languagehat at 6:26 AM on November 8, 2008


Great post.
posted by Wolfdog at 6:56 AM on November 8, 2008


On a recent trip through northern Wisconsin, I passed through a small town in which I noticed a bar sporting a Pabst Blue Ribbon sign.

You know, the old square-shaped light-up white signs you probably saw back in the late 70's, big Pabst logo and the name of the bar added in black block print lettering.

The reason it caught my eye was that there were seven bars in a five-block stretch of road - and every one of them had the exact same Pabst sign, and had likely had them for decades.

It was such a perfect vignette of small town America. I should have taken a picture.
posted by caution live frogs at 8:50 AM on November 8, 2008


The hands-down worst beer I ever drank in my life was in Jordan. We stopped in some ridiculously tiny bedo village between Petra and Wadi Rum. I felt like boozin' it up and sleeping in a cave so we asked around to find the local alcohol distributor. Apparently this town took their brewing regulations pretty strictly because there was only one dude who could sell me beer and he made me swear not to mention it to a soul. He operated a mini-fridge in the basement of a horrible, run-down hotel. His prices were something like 12 times the normal price for fermented drink. I didn't care. I welcomed his swindly, Jordanian bedouin prices and gladly produced an absurd wad of jaydees from my pocket. For my troubles I received a half-pint of brown, syrupy looking liquor that he swore was whiskey. It was in an unlabeled bottle and I remember it tasted like sewage and horror. I think it damaged the vision in my left eye. The other was a can of beer. It said, "PIRATE BEER." It had a clipart image of a female pirate printed on the over-sized can. On the back it said in tiny letters, "1 LT fluid beer" or something. No other discernible information.

I'll never forget that Pirate Beer. If it was sold in the U.S. it would be called Pirate Label Beer Product. I think it was a careful mixture of water, ethyl alcohol, beer flavoring and hate. At least it made me forget about the Jordanian death-ants, the scorpions, the half-eaten boiled chicken, the wild dogs... for one night I slept like a baby amidst the garbage and filth in that cave - the living desert creeping about in the darkness outside, waiting to swallow me alive if I awoke for a bare second.

I'll never go back there.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 9:48 AM on November 8, 2008 [7 favorites]


I grew up in Milwaukee. We had two refrigerators in the kitchen: one was for food. The other was a very old, round-edged white one branded "Norge". My dad had installed a beer tap on its door, and a spill tray underneath it. This was connected to a pressurized quarter-barrel of Pabst Blue Ribbon inside.

Big glass mugs were kept in the little freezer up above.
posted by everichon at 10:36 AM on November 8, 2008


Baby Balrog wins.
posted by verb at 11:04 AM on November 8, 2008


You can read about it here or here, but basically the whole Pabst resurgence started in Portland Oregon in 2001 or so. Specifically at the Lutz Tavern.
posted by snofoam at 11:32 AM on November 8, 2008


Schlitz Malt "baby bulls" ice cold in the truck w/ my friends skipping classs in high school.
posted by shockingbluamp at 1:05 PM on November 8, 2008


Plus, it's why Milwaukee is so goddamned famous.

Drinking PBR in Milwaukee is a sure sign you are a poser. The Pabst Brewery closed down in the 80s and took a fuck load of jobs with it, so the brand has a shitty reputation in brew city.

Milwaukee is pretty much a pure Miller town, High Life being the "authentic" drink of choice. But recently Miller has tried to make it a more upscale brand and it is harder to find cheap returnables, which fucking sucks..
posted by afu at 1:46 PM on November 8, 2008


We have an equivalent of what you would consider Pabst in Puerto Rico which is Medalla Light. In fact, I find the taste to be pretty much the same. However, I discovered Pabst while in Missouri and finding out that they sell for $1 per bottle on certain nights or in other places about $2 for a pitcher.

On the other hand, Medalla Light sells for $0.50 per can in Mayaguez on Wednesday nights if you're ever in Puerto Rico. Usually it sells for about $1.25 or so in San Juan.

I enjoy Pabst. I'm not a hipster. It's a good cheap beer.
posted by lizarrd at 2:11 PM on November 8, 2008


Hipsters smoke marihuana and listen to Ornette Coleman.

Add beer and I'm there.
posted by Wolof at 5:35 PM on November 8, 2008


Drinking PBR in Milwaukee is a sure sign you are a poser.

I was talking about Schlitz. In Mississippi all we cared about Wisconsin was their beer label and our native son quarterback throwing touchdowns in some distant, cold place called Green Bay. I use the past tense because you fools dropped Brett and hell, it's just beer.
posted by gordie at 6:29 PM on November 8, 2008


I don't see much evolution at all.

I mean, I look at these ads and I think - say,why aren't I getting blown right now? Is it because I'm not drinking Pabst?

What, you're not seeing all the phallic and open mouth imagery? Hipsters don't like plochops?

Basically this ad is saying, "Bob Hope drinks Pabst, and gets blown, so should you".
posted by Smedleyman at 11:39 PM on November 8, 2008


Nice collection of ads but the commenter is talking out his ass.

-1900. Taken from the era when 'drugs and alcohol' were marketed as elixirs, extracts and tonics. Uh, no. Pabst Extract is not beer. It's malt extract. There's no alcohol in it, so it's not actually a drug or alcohol.
-1913. The fact that these men are wearing suits suggest that the beer is a luxury product. Take a look at ANY photo from this era. EVERYONE wore jackets and ties.
-1936. "It's safe to say that this ad is tailored to the effect that, 'you'd be stupid not to drink Pabst.'" No, actually, the main point of this ad is the invention of the beer can. Pabst was one of the first beer companies to use beer cans, in 1935.
-1940. "about the time that color began to be used in print adverts." Really? You might want to look at the 1936 ad you just posted.
-1942. "Rather than saying, "drink our beer and be classy', they were saying, "this beer is good for you just how you are." Maybe in this ad, but Pabst never gave up advertising its beer as a classy product. See this ad from 1945.
-1943. "This ad, taken from a larger consistent campaign, ran for several years and was set in a fictional 'Ribbon-ville.'" RTFA, idiot. That would be "Ribbon Town," and it was part of a national Pabst campaign that included a comedy radio series staring Groucho Marx.
-1950. Nothing wrong here, but it's interesting to note that the year after he endorsed Pabst, Tommy Henrich jumped ship and started selling beer for Miller. Three years after that, he bought his own beer company, Red Top.
-1958. Following the trend of the 1958 advertisement, this ad included both a male and a female. America was changing, feminism was now gaining momentum. Uh, you might want to catch up with this.
-Today. "Pabst is enjoying some of the greatest popularity of its rich company history." First, everyone should know that Pabst does not actually brew beer. Miller makes much of the product. Pabst is just a holding company for a bunch of old beer names. Last year, it produced about 6.1 million barrels of beer under 31 different labels. In 1977, before its decline, the company produced 17 million barrels - all of it Pabst.
posted by sixpack at 11:26 AM on November 9, 2008 [3 favorites]


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