News From Terre Haute, Indiana

Schools

Discussion

Welcome to our online comments feature. We welcome your thoughts and your opinions, including unpopular ones. We ask only that you keep the conversation civil and clean. We reserve the right to remove comments that are obscene, racist or abusive and statements that are false or unverifiable as well as posts that are attacking other users. Repeat offenders will be blocked. You may flag objectionable comments for review by a moderator.
comments powered by Disqus
August 19, 2008

BRUCE KAUFFMAN: Marlboro Man: The birth of an icon

By Bruce Kauffman

TERRE HAUTE — This week in 1949, Life magazine put on its cover Clarence Hailey Long, a working cowboy on a large Texas cattle ranch, and five years later Leo Burnett, the founder of a Chicago-based advertising agency, found himself recalling how strikingly masculine C.H. Long was, what with that rugged face, that cowboy get-up, and that cigarette dangling from his lips. An American icon was about to be born.

Burnett’s agency had just landed the Marlboro cigarette account, which, before 1954, had been marketed to women as a milder cigarette. That saddled Marlboro with the image of a “sissy” smoke, and saddled Phillip Morris, which produced Marlboros, with 1 percent market share. Phillip Morris hoped Burnett could change the cigarette’s image and sales numbers, and (ironically enough) Burnett used a saddle to do it. At an agency creative session, Burnett asked his creative team to name the most masculine image they could think of and, as Burnett suspected, the cowboy was the winner. The following year Burnett launched the “Marlboro Man” campaign, a series of ads featuring rugged cowboys (and other macho men such as hunters and blue-collar types) smoking Marlboros, and by the end of 1955 Marlboro sales had increased more than 3,000 percent.

But as sales increased, so did public awareness that cigarettes caused cancer. As a result, the Burnett ad agency experimented with various other marketing strategies — and models — that “softened” the cigarette’s image. As Burnett himself once said, “We couldn’t show cowboys forever.”

For once, he was wrong because nothing registered with the smoking public — at least the male half of it — like the cowboy, and in the mid-1970s a new version of the “Marlboro Man” campaign was created. New ads showed authentic cowboys, dressed in chaps, riding horses, holding rope, tying up calves, and a dozen other images — always with a Marlboro hanging from their lips — and every ad had a rugged western “Marlboro Country” landscape as background. By the end of the decade Phillip Morris was making a $1 million profit a day on Marlboros, which was America’s number one brand.

Burnett once labeled his Marlboro campaign, “dumbbell simple,” but the reasons for its success were actually rather nuanced and complicated. In an increasingly conformist world, Americans saw the Marlboro cowboys as the last of a dying breed — strong men, comfortable in their own skin, who prized their freedom and individuality. Millions of Americans hoped that smoking Marlboros would give them that same feeling, even if it lasted only a few minutes at a time.

Of course, speaking of a dying breed, since the first Marlboro campaign, some 15 million Americans have died from smoking-related diseases, including Wayne McLaren and David McLean — two former “Marlboro Men.”

Bruce Kauffmann’s e-mail address is bruce@historylessons.net.



Text Only | Photo Reprints
Schools
Latest News
Multimedia

Like us on Facebook!
Community Calendar
Loading…
Events by eviesays.com
TribStar.com Poll
Front page
AP Video
Man Falls Off Crane, Dies After Police Standoff Witness Describes Fla. Face-chewing Attack Unexpected Smog in Pristine National Parks Raw Video: Cop Shoots Man Eating Another's Face Obama Honors Fallen Troops at Arlington Cemetery Man in Crane at Texas College Says He's Armed Raw Video: Deadly Explosion at Minn. Paper Mill Dairy Farm Uses Chiropractor to Help Cows Russia Condemns Ally Syria Over Massacre of 108 Romney Promises World's Strongest Military Air Canada Plane Makes Emergency Landing Raw Video: Earthquake Shakes Evacuees in Italy 15 Dead in Northern Italy's 5.8-magnitude Quake Obama Pays Tribute to Vietnam Veterans Beryl Knocks Out Power in Florida New Ticks Spread Across Southeast, Diseases Rise Romney Campaigns Ahead of Claiming Nomination Diplomatic Expulsions Follow Fresh Syria Report Raw Video: Memorial Day Aboard Intrepid Raw Video: 19 Dead in Qatar Shopping Mall Fire
NDN Video
Los Angeles Bar Bans Bachelorettes Hamster Plays Dead Beyonce Shows Off 60 Pound Weight Loss at Concert Drunk Women Breaking Into Houses: A New Trend? LeAnn Rimes Rocks Short Shorts Raw Video: Cop Shoots Man Eating Another's Face Gordon Ramsay Carried Off Field Man Dies Getting Lap Dance Kim Kardashian Claims Items Stolen from Her Luggage Bear cools off in Calif. family's pool Ep. 3: Chopped Desserts Air Force dad surprises family at baseball game Justin Bieber Wanted for Questioning for L.A. Scuffle J.Lo and Marc's Friendly Reunion Man Falls Off Crane, Dies After Police Standoff Jet makes emergency landing after debris falls off Raw Video: Deadly Explosion at Minn. Paper Mill Cynthia Nixon Ties the Knot Woman, 80, Falls Out of Skydive Harness Mid-Jump Keira Reveals Engagement Ring
Parade
Magazine
Click HERE to read all your Parade favorites including Hollywood Wire, Celebrity interviews and photo galleries, Food recipes and cooking tips, Games and lots more.
  • -

    March 12, 2010

activity
Real Estate News