Marlboro Campaign

We chose this campaign as it is one of the most successful campaigns that was conducted of all time. Not only has it has played a huge role in Marlboro 's sales, but it also changed how people perceived smokers.

Marlboro 's "Mild as May," was a campaign for cigarettes without filters that was launched in 1924. Back then, men didn’t prefer to smoke as it was considered unmasculine of them. In 1950’s, smoking cigarettes was highly accepted in the politest societies and elites. Marlboro then came up with an idea; to launch a campaign for men smoking cigarettes so they could increase their sales and at the same time change how people perceived Marlboro from a brand for women to the opposite. They wanted to change men 's public opinion of cigarettes.

They wanted to make cigarettes appeal to them more. It proposed a series of manly figures: cowboys, sea captains, weightlifters and construction workers. Marlboro Man was inspired by Leonard McCombe, a photographer, who shot and published in Life Magazine the story of Texas Cowboy Clarence Haily Long. So they dropped the rest and stuck to the cowboy figure only. At the beginning, the models that appeared in the advertisements weren’t real cowboys, but in 1963, they launched another campaign, Marlboro County, that involved real working cowboys. Though, Paul Birch, an actor, was the first to popularize the cowboy image in Marlboro Man. “Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man” was a movie played by Mickey Rourke and Don Johnson, who played the role of a cowboy, and at that time cowboys were automatically associated by Marlboro

It reflected the American culture and character. The idea of the cowboy reflected being independent and the act of leaving behind old customs and changing. The campaign involved the use of archetypes, visual semiotics and the Savanna principle. They portrayed a manlike cowboy in a natural environment. Marlboro Man conformed to masculinity, sexuality, being untamed and free. Smoking was used as a way of confirming to the belief of freedom, wildness, singularity and individualism. Marlboro Man was an egoistic ideal, a noble man in his home, America, and a master of his destiny. The egoistic ideal is a symbol of independence. The advertisement symbolizes capitalism, individualism, reason, republican liberty and comprehends reality. Americans saw this campaign as a market for tourist consumption, while liberal people saw it as a romantic dream of wilderness and nature. Others saw it as a free Western