Pabst Blue Ribbon Wants to Invade Your Home With Ads

If you’ve always wanted to plaster your living space with ads for Pabst Blue Ribbon, now’s the perfect time to explore this decorating fantasy, as the brewer will pay you to display its red, white and blue iconography all around your home.

Just visit this site through Sept. 24 and “shop” for branded household items, ranging from toilet lids and shower curtains to rugs and tablecloths. You can choose sticker options and decals, too. Pabst will ship you the goods free of charge, and folks who post images of their newly tricked-out abodes, tagging @pabstblueribbon, qualify for payouts in the $10 to $50 range. (They’re currently “sold out”—but more merch will hit the virtual shelves by Wednesday.)

Digital options are also available. Rename your WiFi network PBRSOGOOD and you could make money. Not a whole lot, but still, what are you earning with MYWIFI or some other LAMEHOMENETWORK name these days?

The agency Callen helped develop the silly spin on in-house marketing, and created this zippy video explainer:

“The idea came from a really practical place,” explains PRB VP of marketing Nick Reely. “We were talking about ways to effectively increase brand awareness and kept getting hung up on the budget required to sufficiently reach a lot of people because of how expensive media can be. Jokingly, we said ‘What if we just paid people to put really overt ads in their apartments, condos, homes, dorm rooms, wherever? It would cost less than billboards—and be funny!’ “

“Funny” is a relative term. This is more … offbeat or quirky, along those lines? Stupid yet satirical? Beery?

In terms of merchandise, “we wanted to offer a mix of big items that are semi-ridiculous based on their size—like an area rug,” Reely says, “but also thought there was something inherently funny about small items with really nominal payout values, too—like a sticker that can go on a banana.” (That particular elongated fruit being the “in” promotional vehicle these days.)

“Also, we wanted to offer a range of things for a variety of rooms,” he adds, “so we could take the place over with our logo—I mean, so we could pay people more for generously lending their unused space to our ads!”

CREDITS

CALLEN
Founder/Chief Creative Officer: Craig Allen
Writer: Kyle Davis
Art Director: Matt Nall
Head of Strategy: Julianna Simon
Account Supervisor: Payton Brown
Producer: Janice Woods
Producer: Harrison Watkins
Editor/VFX: Davy Force