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.
Schools
BRUCE KAUFFMAN: Marlboro Man: The birth of an icon
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Valley educators cautious on Indiana’s ‘No Child’ waiver
Indiana is one of 10 states to receive a waiver from federal No Child Left Behind requirements.
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Driver dies after Illinois school bus crash
“Brace yourself. Brace yourself,” Fay Pickering shouted to her students just before the school bus she was driving crossed U.S. 40 and landed in a ditch Thursday morning.
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Official: Indiana among first 10 states to get ed waiver
President Barack Obama today will free 10 states from the strict and sweeping requirements of the No Child Left Behind law, giving leeway to states that promise to improve how they prepare and evaluate students, The Associated Press has learned.
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Letters from Debs
Cinda May sat with the phone to her ear listening as the auctioneer in New York City said “Holding, holding.”
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ISU presents Sycamore Hoopla; activities kick off Friday
Indiana State University’s Hulman Center will host its sixth annual Sycamore Hoopla Friday and Saturday.
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BRUCE'S HISTORY LESSON: This little-known compromise may have saved the union
When the Constitution was signed in September of 1787 and sent to the Congress that then existed under the Articles of Confederation, Congress was instructed to send that Constitution to the states to be ratified … or not. The message to the states was clear: Accept the Constitution or reject it, but don’t try to change it.
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College plans Prom Expo on Feb. 19
Get the scoop on the latest in prom fashions and services during Lincoln Trail College’s Prom Expo Feb. 19.
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ISU offering tech ed scholarships to VU grads
Indiana State University is offering $1,000 scholarships for graduates of Vincennes University’s technology programs to pursue their bachelor’s degree.
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Fort Harrison State Park to host winter wildlife workshop
Our culture’s most celebrated survivalists are often men with an accent, a trusty knife, and a tagalong camera crew filming their every move.
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Riverton Parke's winter king and queen
Seniors Gary Secuskie and Taylor Mansinne were named King and Queen of the Riverton Parke Winter 2012 Homecoming.
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Four alumni receive GOLD awards from Indiana State University
A former collegiate football standout and a trio known for selling humorous holiday apparel received the Indiana State University Alumni Association’s Graduate of the Last Decade Award this year.
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Indiana State students hear view from Cuba
Carlos Alzugaray, who spent 40 years representing the Cuban government around the world, wishes NBC newsman Brian Williams had asked a different question during a recent Republican presidential debate in Jacksonville, Fla.
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College to celebrate homecoming
Lincoln Trail College will celebrate homecoming on Feb. 18.
- Goals, Pride & Achievements: Feb. 9, 2012
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Valley middle schoolers ready for MATHCOUNTS
Weeks of early-morning and after-school problem-solving sessions for about 100 Wabash Valley middle school students will culminate on Saturday in the regional MATHCOUNTS competition at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.
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Indiana State education major takes teaching to Siberia
Christin Keirn wanted a challenge and she does enjoy winter. So for her, it seemed an obvious choice.
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Lincoln Trail College honors
Lincoln Trail College has released its academic honor lists for the Fall 2011 semester.
- ACROSS THE WABASH VALLEY: Feb. 9, 2012
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Vigo schools see grad rate rise
The Vigo County School Corp. 2011 graduation rate improved nearly 4 percentage points and surpassed the state graduation rate, according to information from the state Department of Education.
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Rose-Hulman to help address need for advancing railroad technologies
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology is stepping back into its past and addressing a need to advance the nation’s transportation system by educating the next generation of railroad engineers.
Chauncey Rose, an entrepreneur and builder of railroads, came to western Indiana in 1817. -
Take the Plunge for Special Olympics on Feb. 11 at ISU
Join Mayor Duke Bennett, Indiana State University Police Chief Bill Mercier, Terre Haute and ISU Police departments, GFS Marketplace, Mix-FM, the men of Pi Kappa Alpha and the ladies of Alpha Sigma Alpha at the Fourth Annual Terre Haute Polar Plunge to benefit Special Olympics Indiana on Feb. 11.
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Valley woman’s recipe featured by Taste of Home
Taste of Home magazine has honored a Riverton Parke Jr.-Sr. High School Foods Services employee for her recipe.
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College Goal Sunday set for Feb. 12 at Ivy Tech
Financial aid professionals will be volunteering at Ivy Tech Community College in Terre Haute and 39 other Indiana sites to help college-bound students and their families open the door to financial aid during College Goal Sunday, set for 2 p.m. Feb. 12.
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College to offer aeronautics classes at Robinson airport
Lincoln Trail College is flying high this spring with two aeronautics classes taught at the Robinson (Ill.) Community Airport.
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Agreement to further college’s international initiatives
Harrison College, a private sector college serving 6,000 students at 12 campuses in Indiana and Ohio as well as online, has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with Siva Sivani Institute of Management in Hyderabad, India.
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Otter Creek Middle School to celebrate 50 years
Otter Creek Middle School turns 50 years old this year. In 1962, the newly formed Vigo County School Corp. opened the current Otter Creek Middle School as Otter Creek Junior High School.
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College savings campaign kicks off statewide
Students in Clay, Parke, Putnam, Sullivan, Vermillion and Vigo counties are joining students across Indiana to launch Learn More Indiana’s 2012 Cash for College campaign this week.
Eighty percent of students who attend college receive financial aid.
- Goals, Pride & Achievements: Feb. 2, 2012
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BRUCE'S HISTORY LESSON: Freedom of religion — beliefs and actions
Because religious faith is, arguably, the quintessential example of our right to privacy, to say nothing of its prominent place in our First Amendment, throughout our history court cases involving the free exercise of religion have been handled with great trepidation and with particular care. One of the milestone “free exercise” religion cases, Davis v. Beason, was decided by the Supreme Court this week (Feb. 3) in 1890.
- Across the Wabash Valley: Feb. 2, 2012
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