Pabst Blue Ribbon is flipping the advertising script – and it’s using branded merchandise to do it.

Rather than pay for influencers, social networks, media publications/sites, television networks or billboards to promote its sudsy product in ads, the beer maker is offering free merch and cash rewards directly to consumers that hype its brand, grassroots-style.

“In-home” items theme the campaign. Toilet lids were part of the mix.

It works like this: Pabst fans – or anyone, really – go to this website and pick out branded products they like. Pabst proceeds to send the folks the products – for free. Participants then snap photos of the items at use in their homes and share pics on social media, tagging Pabst. Once the proof of display in the home is confirmed, Pabst sends the participants cash that corresponds in value to the product they’ve selected.

“Instead of going the traditional marketing/media route, we did something fun and surprising that directly benefits the people who love PBR most – their fans,” said Craig Allen, founder and chief creative officer at Callen, the Austin, TX-based agency that created the ads that appear on the Pabst merch. “Hopefully they have as much fun putting our self-aware ad lines in their homes as we did coming up with them. If not, well at least they’re getting paid to do it.”

The new campaign is called “In Home Advertising,” and the products correspond to that theme. There are bathroom items – everything from a shower curtain, bathmat, towel and toilet lid to a toothbrush and toilet paper. There are kitchen items like fridge magnets, tablecloths, fridge item stickers, an oven door cling, a cutting board and more. Items for the bedroom, living room and digital gadgets are part of the collection too, including wall and floor decals, blinds, curtains, pillows, a duvet cover, bed sheets and a desktop background.

Bud light: we’ve signed post malone!
Pbr: we can afford this single banana pic.twitter.com/uSkxF76N3U

— Pabst Blue Ribbon (@PabstBlueRibbon) September 22, 2021

Banana stickers are part of the Pabst line. As the messaging in this tweet indicates, Pabst is taking a fun, somewhat self-deprecating tone to the campaign.

All the items feature ironic, cheeky ad lines. For instance, the fridge magnet messaging says, “Some people might call this a beer ad. Those people would be right.” The bed sheets say: “Forcefully inserting ourselves into your homes since 2021.”

“One of the principles we operate under at PBR is subversion,” said Nick Reely, PBR’s vice president of marketing. “Another principle is offering lighthearted and self-aware entertainment to our friends and audiences. A third principle isn’t really giving money away but that’s OK. We made an exception for this campaign.”