Marlboro Man
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.
Leo Burnett
For the first several years, Burnett billed about $1 million annually. By 1950, billings had increased to $22 million, and by 1954 the company was at $55 million annually. By the end of the 1950s, the Leo Burnett Company was billing $100 million annually.
Burnett used dramatic realism in his advertising, the Soft sell approach to build brand equity. Burnett believed in finding the "inherent drama" of products and presenting it in advertising through warmth, shared emotions and experiences. His advertising drew from heartland-rooted values using simple, strong and instinctive imagery that talked to people. He was also known for using "cultural archetypes" in his copy, by creating mythical creatures that represented American values. This is evident on such campaigns as Jolly Green Giant, Tony the Tiger, Pillsbury Doughboy and more famously the Marlboro Man. Indeed, these campaigns played on the 1950s attitudes towards masculinity that pervaded his campaigns.