Marlboro Man
The Marlboro Man (Germanized also Marlboro Man ) is a fictional advertising character of the cigarette brand Marlboro . In addition to other fictional brands, it belongs to mascots such as B. Ronald McDonald , one of the world's most famous advertising figures.
history
The concept and idea of advertising in which one or more cowboys do their duty in the wilderness and carry nothing but a cigarette was developed by Leo Burnett in 1954 . The advertising character should convey masculinity , strength and an independent lifestyle through the spots and ultimately encourage viewers to buy Marlboro cigarettes. The brand was previously considered to have more female connotations and became popular with men with the advertising campaign, but women were not put off by it.
actor
The actors of the Marlboro Man, who embodied him on posters and in the spots broadcast on television and in front of the movies , were among others Charlie Conerly ( quarterback of the New York Giants ) as the first Marlboro Man, but also actors and models like Brad Johnson or Darrell Winfield (1929-2015). The most famous actor was probably Wayne McLaren , who played this character in an advertising campaign in 1976. After many years of heavy cigarette consumption, he died of lung cancer in 1992 at the age of 51 . In 1987 the actor David Millar died of emphysema . In 1995 the actor and Marlboro Man David McLean died of the effects of smoking. Eric Lawson , who appeared in advertisements between 1978 and 1981, died on January 10, 2014 at the age of 72 from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease .
The Marlboro man, with changing actors, is still the main character in the Marlboro commercials, which are now only allowed to be shown in cinemas in Germany .
Reviews and parodies
The character of Marlboro Man has been (and is) parodied countless times due to its clichéd and exaggerated macho appearance . It was and is the target of political criticism, especially by world health organizations. Above all, they criticize the fact that the figure of the Marlboro Man gives teenagers in particular false values of masculinity and "coolness" and incidentally encourages them to increase their cigarette consumption.
literature
- Michael Kimmel: Men and masculinities . ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara 2004, ISBN 1576077748 , page 499.
- Bret Carroll: American Masculinities: A Historical Encyclopedia . Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks 2003, ISBN 0761925406 , pages 285-287.
- Alexander Krause: The Consumer Culture: The Influence of Advertising on American Culture from 1950 to Today . GRIN, Munich 2007, ISBN 3638688062 , pages 53-55.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Libby Copeland: Is Diet Soda Girly? In: Slate . August 12, 2013, ISSN 1091-2339 ( slate.com [accessed March 3, 2016]).
- ↑ John Dyer: The Marlboro man ran out of air . In: Neues Deutschland from January 30, 2014 (accessed January 31, 2014).
- ↑ Ex-Marlboro husband dies of lung disease . Announcement on the N24 website from January 27, 2014 (accessed on January 27, 2014).