With Monday's Twitter misadventures—including imprudent advice to “eat ass”—Pabst appears to have proven that the old axiom of any publicity being good publicity still rings true in 2022, at least in the short term.

According to data firm ShareThis, which monitors digital behavior, Monday’s tweets—which Pabst said were posted by an employee with “poor judgment”—accompanied an increase in engagement of 63% vs. the last three days in December. This was primarily triggered by a 95% increase in search for Pabst and related content, along with a 3% increase in clicks—or visits to Pabst’s online properties—and a 2% increase in content shared about the brand.

Media outlets ranging from Forbes to WGN covered the incident, bringing attention to a brand whose marketing budget cannot match those of bigger beer competitors. It's also worth noting that Pabst has a history of eschewing mainstream marketing tactics while appealing to hipsters and college students, allowing it to more easily get away with such low-brow humor than other brands.

But any positive boost, however unlikely, could be fleeting. Benj Steinman, president of beer trade publication Beer Marketer’s Insights, said he was doubtful that the tweets would have lasting effects and simply proved “that anything can blow up on social media and provide a burst of attention that is utterly inane.”

The beer brand was already courting a little controversy through the Jan. 1 introduction of “Wet January” messaging—a provocation intended to ride an alternative to consumer interest in abstaining from alcoholic drinks during the month, known as Dry January. According to ShareThis, that stunt managed to attract even more attention to Pabst than did Monday's offending tweets, with engagement up by 247% and split more evenly: Search was up 54%, and clicks increased by 45%, with content sharing increasing by 1% vs. activity the previous three days, ShareThis noted.

“Online engagement with ‘Dry January’ was 7.5 times higher than engagement volume with Pabst Jan. 1-3, so it seems that Dry January has gotten the last laugh,” Coco Carson, insights manager for ShareThis, said in an interview.

All of the tweets have since been poured down the drain, leaving the brand with the challenge of regaining control of the narrative surrounding it while it reassesses its appetite for provocation, industry experts say. The company acknowledged that Monday’s tweets and replies were sent from an employee and that the matter was being handled internally. A spokesman did not respond to Ad Age’s questions about whether the offending tweeter was still with the company.

The brand itself returned to social media with a one-word tweet that, for the moment, described its focus:

Pabst Brewing Company, marketer of the flagship brand along with regional legacy beers like Rainier, Old Style, Lone Star, Old Milwaukee and National Bohemian, has overarching marketing issues, having long seen its share of the beer market evaporate, even though revenues in 2021 were up on pricing and mix, Steinman said.

The company is in the hands of a new CEO, Paul Chibe, who joined the company in November from the candy maker Ferrero North America. Chibe is a former U.S. chief marketing officer for Anheuser-Busch InBev, and is well thought of among some beer industry observers. 

“[Pabst] has always pursued the road less traveled and stayed away from mainstream tactics,” Bump Williams, president and CEO of Bump Williams Consulting, said in emailed comments to Ad Age. “Their new CEO is a well-seasoned veteran and I’m sure he has a sound strategy in mind to turn his stable of iconic brands around and give them some new life.”