Pabst offers thieves 18 days to return its stolen beer truck

Someone stole a truck full of beer from Pabst Blue Ribbon, and the brewer turned it into a week of free news coverage. The truck held about 40,000 pounds of beer, which is more than 50,000 cans. It was taken from the brewer’s distribution centre in Montclair, California, on 17 August, according to CBS News Los Angeles. Pabst did not put out a plain appeal for information. Instead it posted a notice on Instagram with the word “STOLEN” at the top. It gave the thieves exactly 18 days and 44 minutes to bring the truck back, with no questions asked.

The odd deadline points to 1844, the year the brewery was founded. The post also carried some honest small print. The truck in the picture was not the stolen one, because the company cannot find the stolen one. The police badge in the picture was made up, to catch people’s attention. At the end the company said the situation was real and that it was serious. Pabst posted again later, joking that the beer was getting warmer while the search was getting nowhere.

Police say the thief pretended to be an approved driver. He collected 1,400 cases of Pabst Blue Ribbon and about 200 cases of Old Milwaukee without alcohol. The load was going to San Diego and was worth roughly 45,000 dollars. About an hour later, someone used false paperwork to take a second load of Pabst Blue Ribbon, worth about 25,000 dollars, from an Anheuser-Busch distribution centre. Montclair police are looking into both thefts.

Pabst’s first post passed 45,000 likes on Instagram

The numbers explain why the brand did it. The first post passed 45,000 likes on Instagram. The story appeared in The New York Times, on CBS, in Newsweek, in The Independent and in dozens of local outlets. PR Daily pointed out that all this free coverage was almost certainly worth more than the beer. Paul Meyers is Pabst’s senior director of integrated marketing operations. He told CBS the company mainly wants its truck back. It is offering a reward worth half the value of the beer if everything comes back undamaged.

The idea is not new. KitKat made a joke of a chocolate theft and won a prize at Cannes Lions for it. The recipe is the same each time. The crime is small. The brand has a voice that can carry a joke. And the brand admits every exaggeration, so the joke never turns into misinformation. Pabst labelled its fake badge and its stock photo before anyone else could.

Pabst’s 18-day deadline runs out in mid-September

The deadline runs out in the middle of September. The truck may or may not come back. Either way, Pabst has an easy follow-up post ready. Agencies will probably use this case in pitches for months. It suggests that a brand’s answer to a small mishap can be planned as content rather than handled as a problem. There is a limit, though, and it is judgement. The joke works because nobody was hurt and because the brand is the one that lost out.