Marlboro: 22 interesting facts about the cigarettes!

Malboro is the best selling brand of cigarettes in the world. Let’s see some interesting facts!

1.The name was taken from a street in London where PM’s British factory was located.

2. Philip Morris launched the Marlboro brand in 1924 as a women’s cigarette, based on the slogan “Mild As May”.

3. However, as early as 1885, a brand called “Marlborough” was already being marketed as a “ladies’ favorite” by Philip Morris & Co.

4. In the 1920s, the filter had a printed red band around it to hide lipstick stains, calling it “Beauty Tips to Keep the Paper from Your Lips”.

5. The red and white package was designed by the Designer Frank Gianninoto.

6. The repositioning of Marlboro as a men’s cigarette was handled by Chicago advertiser Leo Burnett.

7. The proposed campaign was to present a lineup of manly figures: sea captains, weightlifters, war correspondents, construction workers, etc.

8. The cowboy was to have been the first in this series and became the most popular among the others. While Philip Morris was concerned about the campaign, they eventually gave the green light.

9. They wanted to reposition Marlboro as a men’s cigarettes due to the major study, scientists have published, in the 1950s, linking smoking to lung cancer. Philip Morris repositioned Marlboro as a men’s cigarette in order to fit a market niche of men who were concerned about lung cancer. At the time, filtered cigarettes were considered safer than unfiltered cigarettes, but had been until that time only marketed to women. Men at the time indicated that while they would consider switching to a filtered cigarette, they were concerned about being seen smoking a cigarette marketed to women.

10. The Marlboro Man campaign had an astonishing effect on sales. In 1955 when the Marlboro Man campaign was started, sales were at $5 billion. By 1957, sales reached $20 billion, representing a 300% increase within two years.

11. Burnett inspirations for the “Marlboro Man” came in 1949 from an issue of LIFE magazine, where a photograph, shot by Leonard McCombe, of Texas cowboy Clarence Hailey Long caught his attention.

12. In 1963, Philip Morris purchased the rights to Elmer Bernstein’s classic movie soundtrack, The Magnificent Seven . This superb Academy Award nominated score was then used as background music for Marlboro TV commercials.

13. The original commercials involving the Marlboro Man featured paid models pretending to carry out cowboy tasks. But Leo Burnett felt that the commercials lacked authenticity, so in 1968, they hired Oklahoma cowboy Darrell Winfield.

14. Three Marlboro men – Wayne McLaren , David McLean and Dick Hammer – died of lung cancer, thus earning Marlboro cigarettes, specifically Marlboro Reds, the nickname “Cowboy killers”.

15. After developing lung cancer in 1990, Wayne McLaren became an anti-smoking crusader citing his 30-year smoking habit as the cause of his cancer. During the time of McLaren’s anti-smoking activism, Philip Morris denied that McLaren ever appeared in a Marlboro ad.

16. In 1976, a British documentary “Death In the West” , about the cigarette industry centered around the myth of the Marlboro Man. Philip Morris sued the filmmakers and in a 1979 secret settlement all copies were destroyed.

17. Philip Morris (and all other cigarette companies) is now prevented from using words such as “Lights”, “Ultra-Lights”, “Medium”, “Mild”, or any similar designation that yields a false impression that they are safer than regular full flavor cigarettes. Thus Marlboro and other cigarette companies must use only color-coding instead; for example Marlboro Lights are now called Marlboro Gold Pack.

18. Philip Morris responded to the popularity of Pall Mall, the number three brand, by pushing Marlboro Special Blends, a lower-priced cigarettes.

19. Marlboro is known for its association with motor racing. This started in 1972 with the sponsorship of Formula One team BRM who took one win at the Monaco Grand Prix.

20. In 1973 and 1974 the cigarette giant backed Frank Williams Racing Cars team, whose cars were registered as Iso-Marlboro.

21. In many countries, the Marlboro Man is an icon of the past due to increasing pressure on tobacco advertising for health reasons.

22. However, the Marlboro Man is still used in Japan, where smoking is widespread in the male population.