Pabst Blue Ribbon: Did Clint Eastwood Save America's Poor Man's Beer?

In this economy any increase in sales is a good thing, but in the case of PBR it has been a windfall. In August 2009, sales of Pabst Blue Ribbon has increased by 25%, despite, having a significantly smaller advertising budget than several of it's competitors.

The cream of the crop of cheap beers, lately, has been Miller High Life, Busch, and fast risers named Natural Light and Keystone. Now, suddenly we have the resurgence of Pabst Blue Ribbon in the mix. All this has happened despite the competitors spending up to $4.5 million more trying to sell their beer (in the case of Miller high life) than Pabst Blue Ribbon.

So, naturally everyone is looking around and trying to figure out exactly how this happened. How did the beer that our fathers drink before they got decent paying jobs, and, even after they got their jobs kept drinking is because it was now a habit, get popular again?

Some credit this success to Brian Hittle, who is over PBR marketing, but many point back to the movie Gran Turino and how Clint Eastwood is seen drinking a beer throughout the movie, and not just any beer will do, it seems that he can't get enough of the old Pabst Blue Ribbon.

In fact, Clint Eastwood's character in the movie, Walt, could sum up America's feeling for PBR. It is anti-establishment beer that is drank by those who are tough enough to handle a taste of it. It is common to hear a person who was just drinking PBR for the first time take a sip and say, "eww", and why is this? It is because Pabst Blue Ribbon is an acquired taste and in order to appreciate the beer you have to be in that core group that has and always will drink it. It is like a poor beer club, but, even after a person has the means to drink better beer, they always seem to come back to Pabst Blue Ribbon.

One thing is for certain, Clint Eastwood's character, Walt, in the movie Gran Turino very few can forget. Especially, scenes of him sitting on his front porch and going through can after can of Pabst Blue Ribbon. And, there is the scene of Walt polishing his 1972 Ford Gran Turino and sipping on cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon. These product placements are masterfully done and if Brian Hittle had something to do with making sure that Walt drank a particular kind of beer, especially the beer that Brian Hittle was marketing, than Hittle is a marketing genius.

Jeremy Mullen, Advertising : Sales Grow Despite No Money for Ads, Advertising Age