The One with the Marlboro Man

When someone asks me what you like the most about marketing. I don’t just say its Lifestyle advertisement I even take the self proclaimed liberty and shoot some of my favorite examples.

So let me do it one more time. :D

So what exactly lifestyle advertising looks like, the good news is we are already super familiar with lifestyle advertising even if we don’t know it. It is when a commercial tries to tie its product to something else in your life, a feeling, an attribute, satisfaction, the list is endless.

Like when an energy drink ties itself to an extreme athleticism or a camera to adventure, a soda to happiness, a car to love or a phone to more than just a phone.

But it wasn’t always this way, let’s glide back 60 years. People then had a much different idea how to advertise the product. For example, this Camel Cigarettes ad from 1950's. I personally feel that the ad was so unconvincing. Everything is fact and product oriented, buy my thing over their thing because all our researches say so. But the truth is most of us don’t care about their research. I am buying a pack of cigarettes to be cool, not because doctors say it’s more mild/smooth than my competitors.

So in the 1950's when Marlboro changed sexes to men (initially aimed at women), they also changed their advertising strategy by selling their product as a symbol rather than just on the merits of their design (filter, flavor and flip-top box). They did this by creating a smoking cowboy known as "Marlboro Man".

The Marlboro Man was designed to be the epitome of manliness. He was hard working and living free. When I first saw this commercial, I noticed and wonder how much less screen time the Marlboro Cigarette gets, and how the focus of the ad has shifted away from an isolated product to generate and indulge into the feeling of independent, rough, rugged, free life. In other words they weren’t just selling Cigarettes but rather a feeling of Freedom and Adventure.

Within 1 year of this campaign Marlboro went from owning less than 1% of the market to being the 4th largest cigarette company in the world. And within couple of more years it became the no. 1 selling cigarette.

And there is an irony here that one of the famous Marlboro Man Wayne McLaren, said “I have spent the last months of my life in an incubator and I am telling you, it’s just not worth it”. He died of lung cancer.

Marlboro man is a Legend in the adverting and shaped the future of advertising forever. And I think whatever your stand on cigarette are we can all learn from Marlboro Man that people don’t want to be sold a product, but rather a feeling, a connection, something that’s worth more than the number printed on the currency paper they are buying with.

So what are your favorite iconic legends? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section. :)

PS: Links are embedded. Just in case you missed the Marlboro Commercial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAK97pTijJ0