We were loving the stubby bottles before it was cool to love the stubby bottles.

Poking fun of hip millennials, analyzing their appropriating trends and even calling them the devilish "h-word" are things now lost to the annals of time. But they're still out there, sucking up consumer goods and shifting the way marketers approach sales in powerful ways — something MillerCoors is currently enjoying because of the growing popularity of an old Colorado classic, Coors Banquet.

The authoritative brew of the rugged west, Coors Banquet is an old-timey drink that never had much luck after the '70s when light beers began dominating the drinker's culture. Since, it's remained intact as a grandfather's go-juice, only making its way into younger parties when it was the only thing to buy or flew off the shelves because of a blow-out super-sale. For the past 9 years, however, the stubby champion has seen unparalleled growth to its competitors, something Liz Crews, vice president of professional services at Nielsen is keeping her eye on.

"For a brand to be growing across generations, across channels and across regions is really unique and very exciting," she tells the Chicago Tribune of the beer's national spike.

According to the statistics monitoring company, Coors Banquet's sales jumped 2.4 percent last year to $462 million, while others in its class like Miller High Life and Budweiser tripped backwards. The theory behind the growth is all in millennial tastes and its luck in becoming the new trendy thing to drink.

"In the past five years, Banquet's sales have grown in all regions," the Tribune reports, "and the data indicate(s) that an increasing number of 22- to 35-year-old millennials as well as 35- to 44-year-old Generation Xers are buying a larger amount of Banquet more frequently."

As impressive a feat to grow in a slipping market it may be, Banquet's paltry $462 million is a gingerly kick in the direction of Budweiser's $4.9 billion in sales.

For now, analysts suggest the upswing of Banquet's popularity may also have something to do with nixing 2004 Republican Senate Candidate and Coors' chairman Pete Coors in ad campaigns. Rather than rely on a recognizable spokesperson (whom many younger people had nothing in common with), Coors opted to keep the mountain mantra of the Golden brewery at the forefront and now believes the imagery is resonating with drinkers who want to be a part of that history.

What we think experts are failing to recognize about the appeal, however, is that there are few other popular beers sold in those convenient little chubby bottles. What qualifies someone to be an "h-word" is that they maintain a phony sense of individuality (doing something "no one else" is doing) while being tied to the herd as much as possible. Drinking a staple beer in a bottle "nobody else has at this party" is a way to connect with the inner-satisfaction of appearing "different" while not having to defend your selection as if it even matters.

They say image, we say bottles. Tomatoes, tomah-toes …