Pabst Blue Ribbon Is Bringing Drinkers A 180-Pack This Summer

Fans of Pabst Blue Ribbon have gotten accustomed to the iconic beer brand grabbing their attention in creative ways. Its rowdy and irreverent social media posts, street-art-driven ad campaigns, and embrace of the offbeat have kept the brand in front of consumers’ consciousnesses. This strategy has worked well for a beer brand that is the third oldest in America; only Schaffer and Yuengling have been brewing beer longer.

So, it should be no surprise that the brand is dropping a 180-pack on the market this summer to celebrate its 180^th birthday. Yes, you read that correctly. Consumers will be able to pick up—ok, maybe not pick up—a package that will hold the equivalent of six 30-packs of beer or 2,160 ounces of brew.

The idea of offering consumers a package that is certain to grab their attention is nothing new in the beer industry. Brewers have been trying to one-up each other ever since they invented beer. From beer cans that change colors when they get cold (Coors Light) to packaging that looked like a boombox (Miller Genuine Draft) anything that might grab eyes is fair game.

Pabst Brewing certainly hasn’t shied away from this; in fact, they were one of the originators of the practice. From 1893 until the 1950s, only pausing during World War I due to a silk shortage, the brand wrapped every bottle of its beer with a blue ribbon. It worked, and Pabst Blue Ribbon, as we know it today, was born.

In the last few years, they have leaned into extraordinary packaging to stand out and gain more quirky credibility in a competitive beer market. They rolled out their 99-pack across the United States in 2019 after a test run in Canada starting in 2017. The package instantly gained attention and led to massive exposure for a brand that does little to no national advertising.

Pleased with that package’s success, the brand swung for the fences in 2021 when it gave 1776 packs to five influencers and partners. As the largest beer package ever, it stoked even more attention for the brand, especially since they were still building massive 99-pack displays in retail, too.

The culmination of the bigger is better phase came in 2022 when they released 250 limited time 1844-packs into the market to celebrate the year the brand was founded. Designed to be used in retail to anchor key displays and end caps, the package set the record for the largest beverage package ever released in retail, a record no one, not even the biggest brewers in the world, has ever attempted to surpass.

After taking a year off, the brand is back at it this year, using its birthday as a focal point. The 180-pack prominently calls out the brand’s anniversary while offering the same iconic layout consumers have seen for decades. To ensure wider exposure, they have produced over 2,500 packages designed to be set up and filled in the market. It will undoubtedly be a showstopper during the all-important summer beer season when brands can make or break their sales year.

If the 180-pack goes viral like their other three mega packages, they will once again drive the discussion around their brand. By creating such different and off-the-wall packages, Pabst Brewing is ensuring that consumers are paying attention to their brand for a fraction of the cost that the major brewers spend on their national campaigns. It seems that they once again have figured out a way to hack the attention of the everyday drinker.

“This limited 180 pack is a way for us to celebrate a significant milestone in Pabst history – our 180^th anniversary”, says Rachel Keeton, marketing director at Pabst Brewing. “Our fans get really excited about these large promo packs, so we always try to bring something exciting or new to market.”