Marlboro Man, The - The rugged cowboy character seen in a number of TV commercials and print ads since the 1950s. Philip Morris had introduced Marlboro brand as a woman’s cigarette in 1924  but decided to revise the brand in 1955. Dropping the idea of a red-tipped cigarette with the slogan "Fresh as the month of May", the Leo Burnett Agency changed the former feminine brand into a masculine product that soon began to sell millions. The concept of a cowboy character in the original print campaign was inspired by a photograph that appeared in an issue of Life Magazine in 1949. It featured a close-up of a rugged weather-worn 39-year-old Texas ranch foreman named Clarence Hailey Long with a cowboy hat on his head and cigarette in his mouth. Actors to portray the Marlboro Man were Darrell Winfield (who appeared the majority of the print ads), Dick Hammer, Dean Myers, Robert Norris, Tom Mattox and John Bryant (best remembered as the original "Marlboro Man." He went on to play Dr. Robert Spaulding on the TV western, THE VIRGINIAN). In 1964, the company revived the cowboy and gave him a mythical land all his own known as Marlboro Country. The Marlboro TV commercials were discontinued when tobacco advertisements were legislated off the air in the 1970s (and later radio, billboards and print advertisements in youth markets.) Even with the TV ban, Marlboro became the No. 1 tobacco brand in the world in 1972. Marlboro slogans included: "Come to Marlboro Country"; "Come to where the flavor is"; and "You get a lot to like with a Marlboro." TRIVIA NOTE: Although extremely successful and one of the top ad campaigns of all time, the Marlboro campaign was at odds with logic. Why? Well, here is a man who is out in the middle of the wilderness, riding the range at the foot of the snowcapped Rocky Mountains and having immediate access to all the fresh air he could ever possibly want, but for some reason (nicotine addiction?) he has the need to light up a cigarette and pollute his lungs and stink up the air. I just don't get. Wayne McLaren, one of these Marlboro cigarette cowboys died of cancer in 1992 at the age of 51. The original Marlboro Man, David Millar, Jr. died of emphysema in 1987. The widow of Marlboro Man David McLean, who died of lung cancer, sued the company for damages. Other tobacco spokesmen such as David Goerlitz, the Winston Man from 1981 to 1987, was disabled by a stroke in his mid-30s. He lost feeling in his left leg, left side of his face and lost his sense of taste. Will Thornbury, a Camel model, died of lung cancer at age of 56 in 1992; and Janet Sackman, a former Lucky Strike girl in the 1950s lost her voice box and part of a lung to cancer (Plain Truth April, 1993 p. 28). In 2003 Marlboro changed their company name to Altria Group, Inc. Their name may have changed, but the cancer their cigarettes causes still remains the same. One of the most ironic things about Altria Group, Inc. is that they produce anti-tobacco commercials warning of the dangers and addictive nature of smoking. The ad features the voice-over narration of a sympathetic female telling the viewers that "There are not safe cigarettes." Yet Altria Group, (Philip Morris) knowing full well, the dangers of tobacco use, still manufactures them. So much for the corporate love of the almighty dollar over the real health and well-being of America.

             

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