When did the Marlboro Man first appear in Marlboro ad campaigns?
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The use of the Marlboro Man campaign had very significant and immediate effects on sales. In 1955, when the Marlboro Man campaign was started, sales were at $5 billion. By 1957, sales were at $20 billion, representing a 300% increase within two years. Philip Morris easily overcame growing health concerns through the Marlboro Man campaign, highlighting the success as well as the tobacco industry’s strong ability to use mass marketing to influence the public.
Marlboro Man
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The Marlboro Man is a figure used in tobacco advertising campaigns for Marlboro cigarettes. In the United States, where the campaign originated, it was used from 1954 to 1999. The Marlboro Man was first conceived by Leo Burnett in 1954. The images initially featured rugged men portrayed in a variety of roles but later primarily featured a rugged cowboy or cowboys, in picturesque wild terrain. The advertisements were originally conceived as a way to popularize filtered cigarettes, which at the time were considered feminine.
Marlboro Man
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McLaren worked as a stuntman and rodeo rider before being hired to appear in ads for Marlboro. McLaren competed in bronc riding and bull riding events. In 1976, he did promotional work for the famous Marlboro cigarette advertising campaign as the "Marlboro Man".
Wayne McLaren
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Wayne McLaren testified in favor of anti-smoking legislation at the age of 51. During the time of McLaren's anti-smoking activism, Philip Morris denied that McLaren ever appeared in a Marlboro ad, a position it later amended to maintain that while he did appear in ads, he was not the Marlboro Man; Winfield held that title. In response, McLaren produced an affidavit from a talent agency that had represented him, along with a pay check stub, asserting he had been paid for work on a 'Marlboro print' job. McLaren died before his 52nd birthday in 1992.
Marlboro Man
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William Leo Thourlby (January 22, 1924 – April 15, 2013) was an American actor, model and writer. He was known for his rugged, cowboy look, when he appeared as the face of the Marlboro Man campaign in the 1950s. This ad campaign was one of the 20th century's most famous, redefining the Marlboro brand image from a cigarette for women to one for men.
William Thourlby
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The Marlboro advertising campaign, created by Leo Burnett Worldwide, is said to be one of the most brilliant advertisement campaigns of all time. It transformed a feminine campaign, with the slogan "Mild as May", into one that was masculine, in a matter of months. The first models were a Navy Lieutenant and Andy Armstrong, the ad agency’s art supervisor. Other early models were sales promotion director of Philip Morris, Robert Larking, and others from the Leo Burnett ad agency, Lee Stanley and Owen Smith. A number of models who have portrayed the Marlboro Man have died of smoking-related diseases.
Marlboro Man
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Eric Lawson, who appeared in Marlboro print ads from 1978 to 1981, died at the age of 72 on January 10, 2014, of respiratory failure due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD. A smoker since age 14, Lawson later appeared in an anti-smoking commercial that parodied the Marlboro Man, and also in an "Entertainment Tonight" segment to discuss the negative effects of smoking.
Marlboro Man
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When the new Marlboro Country theme opened in late 1963, the actors utilized as Marlboro Man were replaced, for the most part, with real working cowboys. In the same year the campaign began to use Elmer Bernstein's 1960 theme music from "The Magnificent Seven". "In 1963, at the 6 6 6 6 Ranch in Guthrie, Texas, they discovered Carl "Big-un" Bradley. He was the first real cowboy they used, and from then on the lead Marlboro men were real cowboys, rodeo riders, stuntmen." Another of this new breed of real cowboys was Max Bryan "Turk" Robinson, of Hugo, Oklahoma; Turk says that he was recruited for the role while at a rodeo simply standing around behind the chutes, as was the custom for cowboys who had not yet ridden their event. It took only a few years for the results to register. By 1972, the new Marlboro Man would have so much market appeal that Marlboro cigarettes were catapulted to the top of the tobacco industry.
Marlboro Man
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The proposed campaign was to present a lineup of manly figures: sea captains, weightlifters, war correspondents, construction workers, etc. The cowboy was to have been the first in this series. Burnett's inspiration for the exceedingly masculine "Marlboro Man" icon came in 1949 from an issue of "Life" magazine, whose photograph (shot by Leonard McCombe) and story of Texas cowboy Clarence Hailey Long caught his attention.
Within a year, Marlboro's market share rose from less than one percent to the fourth best-selling brand. This convinced Philip Morris to drop the lineup of manly figures and stick with the cowboy. In the mid fifties, the cowboy image was popularized by actor Paul Birch in 3 page magazine ads and in TV ads.
Marlboro Man
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Cowboys proved to be popular, which led to the "Marlboro Cowboy" and "Marlboro Country" campaigns. The slogan "Come to Marlboro Country" promised every ordinary man the prospect of transforming himself into, or at least associating himself with, a rugged and macho cowboy merely by lighting up this Philip Morris product. A satirical reference to the advertisement was made in the Rolling Stones's 1965 song Satisfaction: ""When I'm watchin' my TV and a man comes on and tells me how white my shirts can be, but he can't be a man 'cause he doesn't smoke the same cigarettes as me"".
Marlboro Man