‘Marlboro Man’
AdGirlZ’s Advertising
Campaign Analysis
Mild as May vs. Wild as Marlboro Man
slide adjusted (see original – slide 3) not whole sentences!!
• 1920s: Marlboro - cigarettes with filters for women or a
milder version of cigarettes middle/upper class men
(embedded ‘feminine’ connotations)
•
1950s: U-turn in Marlboro’s marketing strategy - ‘Marlboro
Man’ created
• 1971: ‘Marlboro Man’ disappeared from screen
• 1990s: Commercial death of ‘Marlboro Man’ from billboards
and press
Mild as May VS Wild as Marlboro Man
• 1920s – Marlboro advertised as cigarettes with filters for
women or a milder version of cigarettes for well-dressed
middle/upper class men (embedded ‘feminine’ connotations)
• 1950s – U-turn in Marlboro’s marketing strategy as a result of
rising awareness of smoking-related diseases. Marlboro
promoting cigarettes with filters for men. ‘Marlboro Man’
created. New era for Philip Morris & Co. started.
• 1971 – Ban on tobacco TV commercial. ‘Marlboro Man’
disappeared from a screen.
• 1990s – Further prohibition of tobacco advertisements.
Commercial death of ‘Marlboro Man’ from billboards and
press.
"I said, 'What's the most masculine
symbol you can think of?'
slightly changed
• Leo Burnett Worldwide – the creator of ‘Marlboro Man’
• Response to the previous feminine image of the brand
• While cigarettes were gaining more opponents, Burnett
created the ad avoiding this concern; based on escapism and
masculinity
• Inspired by the cover of LIFE Magazine with Clarence Hailey
Long from 1949
(Brandt, 2006)
LIFE Magazine
Clarence Hailey Long, 1949
Creation of “Marlboro Man”
change 2
• Relied on growing popularity of westerns and cowboys films
• Darrell Winfield (model/ex-cowboy) gave the authenticity to
the advert . He remained ‘Marlboro Man’ for 20 years.
• $300 on searching for Winfield’s replacement as ‘Marlboro
Man’
•
(Brandt, 2006)
"I said, 'What's the most masculine
symbol you can think of?'
• Leo Burnett Worldwide – the creator of ‘Marlboro Man’
• Response to the previous feminine image of the brand
• While cigarettes were gaining more opponents, Burnett created the
ad avoiding this concern; based on escapism and masculinity
• Inspired by the cover of LIFE Magazine with Clarence Hailey Long
from 1949
• Relied on growing popularity of westerns and cowboys films
• Darrell Winfield (model/ex-cowboy) gave the authenticity to the
advert . He remained ‘Marlboro Man’ for 20 years.
• $300 on searching for Winfield’s replacement as ‘Marlboro Man’
•
(Brandt, 2006)
Post adolescent kids...
“[...]post adolescent kids who were just
beginning to smoke as a way of declaring
their independence from their parents”
Philip Morris
The Marlboro Man’s target audience is the strong, outdoor,
independent man, the person who thinks for himself, lives his
own life and does his own thing.
On a screen, by a motorway, in press...
• 1955 – the first ‘Marlboro Man’ commercial released (“What
kind of man he is” – the prelude of ‘Marlboro Cowboy’)
• 1960s – ‘Marlboro Country’ commercial following westernlike patterns (inspired by The Magnificent Seven); billboards
and press adverts across the country (USA): ‘Marlboro
Country’ and ‘Come to where the flavor is. Come to Marlboro
Country’
• 1971 – Ban on tobacco TV commercial
• 1970s/80s – ‘Marlboro Man’ present on billboards and in
press in USA and 150 countries across the world
• 1990s – Ban on printed tobacco ads and billboards
‘Marlboro Country’
Semiotics
Denotation: a cowboy, a horse, a cigarette, nature, semidesert environment, a young man, casual clothes, physical
work, smoking.
Connotation: masculinity, power, hard-working, smoking
as a pleasure and leisure time activity, naturalness,
freshness, wildness of nature, freedom, independence,
health, simplicity.
Myth: Marlboro as cigarettes for men that empower and
give freedom, health, pleasure to the smokers; this
brand guarantees simplicity in so complicated life and
recklessness equal cowboys’ one.
Return On Investment
Year
Action/Result
Level of
Sales
1955
‘Marlboro Man’
campaign released
for the first time
$5 billion
1957
after 2 years sales
increase of 300%
$20 billion
1975 Marlboro was named 300 billion
"top selling brand in
cigarettes
the United States and sold annually
the all-time bestseller in the world“
(PM History 20)
• Through this campaign
Philip Morris established
Marlboro as one of the best
known tobacco brands in
the world.
• The campaign set up
a certain connotation with
the brand recognisable
worldwide
and
also
distinguished it from other
brands (Roman, 2009).
Impact and Implications
• ‘Marlboro Man’ advertising campaign is mostly analysed in
context of semiotic analysis, visual context and mythological
meaning attached to it.
• E.g. Chapman and Egger in their piece “Myth in cigarette
advertising and health promotion” claim that Marlboro
created a clever way to build up the myth around Marlboro as
a brand that brings naturalness, freshness and untouched
wildness. Unfortunately, the real effect of smoking cigarettes
is significantly different (1987:176).
• Promoting cigarettes as a natural part of life led to set the ban
on advertising tobacco products (political implication).
Billboard
Mythical Message
• Masculinity and the Marlboro Man: Marlboro Man may be
considered as a stereotype of the masculine
• Cowboys as „softies“ rather than „machos“ (ethos of the Wild
West)
• Idea: Smoking does NOT cause serious health problems
(implicit message: cigarettes are something soft and gentle)
• And finally, ‘Marlboro Man’ exists in the culture as a single,
separate symbol (‘Marlboro Man’ stands for an idiomatic
expression describing specific values and bringing established
connotations)
References
• 1. Barry, A. M. (1997) Visual Intelligence: Perception, Image and
Manipulation in Visual Communications. Albany: State University of New
York Press
• 2.
Brandt, A. (2006) The Cigarette Century. New York: Basic Books
• 3. Chapman, S. Egger G. (1987) “Myth in cigarette advertising and
health promotion” in Marketing and semiotics: New direction in the study
of signs for sale. edited by
J. Umiker-Sebeok. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter
• 4. Knowles, E. (2006) "Marlboro Man" The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase
and Fable.[online] Available from:
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O214-MarlboroMan.html [Accessed:
27 November 2010]
• 5. Roman, K. (2009) The Kings of Madison Avenue. New York: St.
Martins Press