PBR renaissance is fruit of recession

With our economy being what it is, PBR is staging a comeback among beer hounds.

Didn't that stuff used to be the cheap of the cheap? Something you drank because it was cheaper than anything else and the taste (a bit) more tolerable than the gas from a Texaco pump?

This is from Advertising Age:

... but still, if PBR costs more and advertises less, why is it up 25% this year, vs. an 18% gain for Keystone and low- to mid-single-digit gains for the others? ... the answer, wholesalers and beer-marketing experts said, is likely found in marketing activity that occurred long before the current recession. Back in 2004, Pabst executed a highly effective word-of-mouth campaign that made the long-declining brand an "ironic downscale chic" choice for bike messengers and other younger drinkers who viewed the beer as a statement of non-mainstream taste.

What's next? Thunderbird with fish or veal?