How Did Marlboro Moved The Public Opinion Of Cigarettes?

What comes to the mind when a cigarette is mentioned? Perhaps a group of ‘cool’ people hanging out or a dramatic scene in a movie, but what about the filter? The filter cigarette was created in 1925 but until 1954 the public opinion of filtered cigarettes was they were feminine and men did not buy or smoke the cigarettes. However, in 1954, Marlboro launched their “Marlboro Man” an ad campaign that depicted a rough and rugged cowboy with nothing but a Marlboro cigarette. The Marlboro Man changed the public opinion of filtered cigarettes and is now considered one of the greatest ad campaigns ever.

In 1924, Marlboro was founded as brand of cigarettes geared more towards women. When the new filtered cigarette was invented it was also considered

a feminine smoking option. In the early 1950s, new scientific studies of the negative effects of smoking tobacco came to light. So in response many tobacco companies began pushing filtered cigarettes as the “more healthy option.” Marlboro struggled already since they were considered a women’s brand of cigarettes but with filtered cigarettes they were more likely to be hurt with sales to men. However, Leo Burnett came up with the best advertising solution to Marlboro’s problem- the Marlboro Man.
Other tobacco brands advertised the filtered as health, but Leo Burnett thought telling people filtered cigarettes were healthier would make them worry about the health of smoking at all. Instead Burnett focused more on the image of the filtered cigarettes and the new image masculine image of Marlboro. Burnett tossed around a few ideas of what the new masculine spokesperson should be but decided on the American cowboy, which he named the Marlboro Man. The American cowboy had the characteristics Marlboro was looking and the public bought into it.
The success to the Marlboro Man campaign was due to the era it started in and how it depicted what every male wanted to be. Cowboy television shows were all over televisions and movie screens in the 1950s. The Marlboro Man was just like the cowboys Americans saw, rough, tough, and hardworking. It also helped that the original Marlboro Man, Paul Birch, was considered an attractive man that made women support Marlboro and the average Joes who smoked it. The success of the Marlboro Man was so great that the ad campaign went on until the mid 1990s when cigarette smoking became to frowned upon and the influence of the Marlboro Man was so strong Marlboro had to stop it or face bad publicity.
The Marlboro Man is still considered one of the greatest ad campaigns in the World. Nothing was the same after the ad campaign. The Marlboro Man contributed to cigarette smokers smoking filtered cigarettes by appealing to people’s deep primal desires to be rough and dirty.