Blue Ribbon Sale

Turns out marketing yourself cheap can make you worth a lot.

That’s the message of the day coming from the sale of Pabst Brewing Company, the private beer company known for serving the tastes of those who like their beer blue collar — and those who want others to think they like their beer blue collar.

Marketplace reports that thanks to Pabst Blue Ribbon beer’s popularity among hipsters and college students who drink it with "a wink and a little irony," the parent company could be selling for as much as $300 million. That’s a lot considering you could get a can of Pabst at your local credibility-conferring hole-in-the-wall for as little as $2.

And how many products can you count that have been buoyed by the hipster hype machine only to be denounced one month later? Ahem, Vampire Weekend anyone? So if you can actually cultivate loyalty among hipsters, we’d say $300 million is well worth it.

Photo courtesy rysac1 via Flickr.