Few advertising figures come close to the Marlboro Man, the quintessential macho. This cowboy in Stetson was responsible for making Philip Morris’ Marlboro cigarette brand from an also-run to the biggest selling cigarette not only in the U.S. but also the world over.

This was how the Marlboro Man was born.

Marlboro was first introduced in London in 1847 where it had an unceremonious performance. It got its second try in the United States in 1924, where it was introduced as a cigarette for women. At about that time, words had begun to spread about a possible link of cigarettes to lung cancer. The movement for women’s liberation was also beginning to snowball at that time. Marlboro, being a filter cigarette, could pass up as a safer smoke than the non-filter kind and as a mild cigarette suitable for women.

From women to men

Appropriately, Marlboro was positioned as a cigarette for women. Its sales pitch was “Mild as May”. Sophisticated women in various smoking poses were used as advertising models. Sales of Marlboro cigarettes were acceptably well at the start but began to drop during the war. Marlboro was subsequently taken out of the market. It was brought back in 1954 for its third try when filter cigarettes were beginning to become popular.

This time, however, there was a major change in the campaign. Marlboro was positioned, no longer as a cigarette for women but as a cigarette for men, real men. The “tattooed man” replaced the well-dressed, sophisticated woman reaching for a Marlboro. Hunks were used as figures to suggest machismo, men who smoked their cigarettes while doing he-man, masculine tasks.

The cowboy as the perfect macho

But the search for the perfect macho man continued. Leo Burnett, the ad agency handling the Marlboro advertising campaign, had locked on the cowboy as the perfect figure for the Marlboro campaign. The cowboy had to be a real cowboy not cowboy actors that had so far been the figures used. Previous commercials lacked the element of authenticity and the cowboy actors lacked the rugged look of a real cowboy.

One day, the real cowboy was found, a ranch hand named Darrell Winfield. He became the first Marlboro Man and modeled for Marlboro for 20 years until the late 1980′s.

The cowboy as Marlboro Man

Thus began the Marlboro advertising campaign, considered one of the most brilliant of all time.

The impact of the Marlboro Man on sales was immediate. When the campaign started in 1955 sales were about $5 billion. By 1957 sales soared four times to $20 billion.

Many more Marlboro Man figures followed. Two among them stood out from among the rest –
Wayne McLaren and David McLean — unfortunately both men died from lung cancer.

Wayne McLaren as Marlboro Man

McLaren was a former professional rodeo rider and bit actor who modeled as the Marlboro Man in the mid-1970′s print advertising. He was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1990 at the young age of 49. He died in 1992. The cancer stricken cowboy spent the rest of his life campaigning against smoking. Three significant parts of his campaign were his anti-smoking tv spot, his appearance before the Massachusetts congress to support a bill raising taxes on cigarettes, and his appearance before a Philip Morris stockholders meeting to appeal for reduced advertising.

The tv spot juxtaposed contrasting shots of a healthy and handsome cowboy and shots of the sick McLaren in his hospital bed. He was 51 when he died.

David McLean as Marlboro Man

McLean was a tv and movie actor. He modeled for print and tv advertisements for Marlboro starting in the early 1960′s. In 1993, he was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor in his lungs. Like McLaren, he also campaigned against smoking until his death in 1995.

McLean’s widow and son filed a wrongful lawsuit against Philip Morris, claiming that McLean was made to smoke five packs of cigarettes during takes and was regularly supplied with free cartons of Marlboro.

In spite of the tragic tales of these two cowboys, Marlboro has remained a big-selling cigarette in the U.S. and worldwide. It proved impervious to these two tragic tales.