Will Hipsters Abandon PBR?
So, one of the New Year's resolutions of this blog is to blog more. So, to that end, I got a digital camera thinking that the photographs I take would occasion a thought. Here goes. This underexposed beauty was taken at Brother Jimmy's near MSG - literally around the corner from the store I got the camera in.
I ask: What has happened to Pabst Blue Ribbon? Less than a decade ago Pabst had to close its Milwaukee operations and move to Texas. Then in 2001, at the lowest of the low, one bar in Portland, Oregon switches from a local brew to Pabst, and one barbershop in that same city starts to carry it.
Suddenly, I discovered a world in New York where bearded hipsters played Kings of Leon records at bars that offered "Blue Collar Tuesday" specials to those (usually unbearded middle-aged souls) who showed their union cards. These bars invariably smell like urine. Now two years later, here it is being sold in a top flight sports-bar chain in NYC right next to Madison Square Garden.
And it even has a perfect YouTube video.
But if I had to guess, my bet is that young people begin rejecting the ironic embrace of long-defunct brands, and begin once again to ironicly embrace the almost-defunct projects of major corporate brands. Expect to see lots of Bud Ice at the hipest bars near you. I close my eyes and hear the faint strains of a Feist CD and an idiot 24 yr. old in a mustache explaining that, "The ad guys at A.B. [that's Anheuser Busch] have wanted to dump the Ice for years man. They don't even know what they've got!"
Michael Brendan Dougherty
in Culture
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Reader Comments (10)
I think Schaefer's a good call though, I'm going to keep my fingers crossed for it.
I'd like to see something really edgy like white people wearing Fiske and Tennessee State t-shirts, but I don't think it's going to happen because of the conformist views on the insensitivity of that sort of thing. That all said, I love the annual Southern Grambling game and I don't care if everyone from Tupac to Sam Francis thinks it's silly.
I also must apologize for our insistence that sincerity and stupidity are the same phenomenon.
For those who missed PBR's sleight of hand, pick up a copy of "Brand Hijack: Marketing Without Marketing" by Alex Wipperfurth. It explains the slick moves made by Pabst to look as though they had nothing to do with the fad. It's also nice to see Portland Hipsters taken down a notch!
What's a "hipster"? Isn't half the young middle-class male population in the USA at least semi-hipster in intent (the vanity tattoo rule)? Isn't being a hipster then being a conformist in emulation of something they aren't, meaning hipsters can never be hip because it's unhip to conform, thus the diminutive "-ster" suffix? The popularity/quality metrics shouldn't be clouded-up by groupies.
Maybe your hook should be "Irish bar". That makes more sense.
ANYWAY! My stab: PBR is/was a staple brew at Enlisted Clubs (usmc) and was lionized (naively or not) by many grunts as a connection to heartland (usually rural) America (as opposed to the current location the grunts found themselves stationed at the time). It was good ol' American beer and definitely not frou-frou. It was the C&W beer. The proud "goat ropers'" beer.
Maybe in time of war, it's "reliability" is being touted more than ever in letters and in imaginations. So "hipsters", being conformists (or ex-military) latch-on.
Epilogue: PBR is very drinkable, so it stands on its own. Any beer that's not overpriced, not too sweet or too malty, and not watery lite beer, is good. I've drank great beer around the world (Ganter, San Miguel, etc), but here in the USA I've settled for drinking good ol' $7.49/12-pk Olympia. Not bad. Or, if on sale, Dos Equis Ambar.