中文Somewhere in a packaging design studio, someone looked at a cardboard beer carton and asked a question most of us would dismiss: what if the box itself was the costume? Pabst Blue Ribbon answered that question with a limited-edition 12-pack that turns into a wearable Jason Voorhees hockey mask — and suddenly, secondary packaging is the headline act.
The partnership pairs PBR with Horror Inc., tapping the Friday the 13th franchise. The limited-run 12-pack of 12-ounce cans puts Jason’s iconic mask front and centre, with blood-splattered graphics for the requisite Halloween chills. Cut-out eye holes transform the carton into a mask you can actually wear. As Robbie Barsamian, executive VP of Horror Inc., put it: ‘Jason’s hockey mask is instantly recognizable, so making it wearable right off the pack was a no-brainer for us.’
Two American icons, one last-minute costume
There is a genuine insight buried in the gimmick. Halloween is the one night when millions of people need a costume and have no plan until the day before. Zac Nadile, head of brand strategy at Pabst, nailed the pain point: ‘We turned a 12-pack into a Jason mask and, in the process, solved that all-too-familiar problem of figuring out a last-minute Halloween costume.’ Wear the whole box on your head, or cut out the mask — either way you have one of the better costumes in the room, and you got it free with your beer.
Hannah Barnett, brand director at Pabst, added the kind of line that writes its own social post: ‘We kindly ask that people consider cutting out an additional hole for drinking PBR.’ It is funny, it is shareable, and it turns a passive purchase into a photo op — which, in 2026, is the entire advertising economy.
Why packaging won the night
For decades, packaging’s job stopped at ‘protect the product and look nice on shelf.’ PBR’s Jason pack flips that. The carton is now an experience, a costume, a conversation starter and a piece of licensed fandom — all before you open a single can. In a beer aisle drowning in Oktoberfest seasonals, a box you can wear cuts through the noise in a way another pumpkin-spiced label never could.
The promotion runs September through — appropriately — Friday, November 13, and stretches beyond the pack into merchandise, apparel, glassware, bobbleheads, tap handles, tankards and koozies. It also rides the momentum of Peacock and A24’s Crystal Lake series, revisiting the Friday the 13th universe. Smart timing: the packaging is the tip of a multi-touch campaign, not a one-off novelty.
The lesson for brand owners
If you make a packaged product, the takeaway is liberating. Your carton, your can, your sleeve — these are not just containers. They are the one piece of marketing the customer physically keeps in their hands, in their home, possibly on their head. PBR treated that surface as theatre, and gave fans a reason to post it. Most brands treat it as a logistics cost.
The emotional truth is harmless and human: people like to play. A pack that invites them to — that says ‘put me on and be someone else for a night’ — earns a kind of loyalty no discount can buy. PBR just reminded the whole industry that packaging, at its best, is permission to have fun.
Source: Packaging Digest (Rick Lingle), 8 September 2026.
