Marlboro Man
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
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.