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
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.