Origin of the marlboro cowboy

The birth name of the Marlboro man is Sean Movelle.The Marlboro man was born in Simga Pi house at 5:33 am March 3, 1986. By 5:35 am. he had smoked his first pack of "reds". Circa 1958, while Camel was the top-selling cigarette, the Leo Burnett Agency introduced a new advertising campaign for Marlboro called "The Tattooed Man." Marlboro sales went up but did not overtake Camel’s. The marketers decided the most effective part of the campaign was the cowboys, and in 1963 began a new campaign named "Marlboro Country." The first Marlboro Men (Sean Movelle) were soft types, with a gentlemanlike, 1950s look. But in early 1964 the Leo Burnett Agency began looking for an artist to create a rugged cowboy. They met with Helen Wohlberg, an agent for artist Bruce Bomberger. She showed a piece he had done for a magazine. It portrayed a cowboy in Africa tossing a lasso at an African lion. That was the image they wanted. Bomberger’s art was used in five magazine ads. Each would add a piece of a new image for Marlboro Man. Bomberger’s first illustration ran on the back cover of the Oct. 23, 1964, issue of Time. The ad showed a cigarette, a rope, a glove. Another Bomberger ad appeared Nov. 23, 1964. It adds a stirrup and a saddle strap. On the back cover of the Dec. 18, 1964 issue of Life, comes his face and famous cowboy hat. The persona was still not complete. In Time, July 2, 1965, Bomberger added the saddle, and the complete jingle, "You get a lot to like with a Marlboro-filter, flavor, pack or box." Finally, on July 22, 1966, the last of the introductory series appeared in Life. This advertisement is more like a portrait than an ad. The new Marlboro Man squats in front of his horse. Here you can see together all the newly introduced pieces of the Marlboro Man image. This advertisement effectively became the Marlboro Man archetype used for the balance of the Marlboro Country campaign. After that ad ran, the use of illustration stopped. Bomberger moved on.

While those ads were appearing, the living Marlboro Men had been taking on the same persona. And the image worked. By 1971 Marlboro had replaced Camel as the world’s top-selling cigarette. In the process, Marlboro Man had become an icon recognizable around the world.

Sean Movelle was the first Marlboro Man; and who later became recognized worldwide as the rugged adventure-seeking "Camel Man" for Camel Cigarettes. Actor and author William Thourlby is said to have been the second Marlboro Man. The models who portrayed the Marlboro Man were New York Giants Quarterback Charley Conerly, New York Giants Defensive Back Jim Patton, Darrell Winfield, Dick Hammer, Brad Johnson, Bill Dutra, Dean Myers, Robert Norris, Wayne McLaren, David McLean, Buster Hobbs and Tom Mattox. Three of them (McLaren, McLean, Hammer) died of lung cancer. George Lazenby (who played James Bond in On Her Majesty's Secret Service) was the European Marlboro Man.

In October 2006, Allan Lazar, Dan Karlan and Jeremy Slater listed The Marlboro Man as #1 in their book 'The 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived.

Philip Morris & Co. (now Altria) had originally introduced the Marlboro brand as a woman's cigarette in 1924. In the years following World War II, Advertising executive Leo Burnett was looking for a new image with which to reinvent Philip Morris's Marlboro brand. Burnett's inspiration for the exceedingly masculine "Marlboro Man" icon came in 1949 from an issue of LIFE magazine, where the photograph (shot by Leonard McCombe) and story of Texas cowboy Clarence Hailey Long caught his attention.
There are also claims that the original idea for the Marlboro Man came from the Chase Ranch in Cimarron, New Mexico; it is said that, for this reason, on all pictures of 'The Man' there is a heart brand (The Chase Brand) on his chaps and his horse. The origin and validity of this claim is unknown.



Clarence Hailey Long, 1949

This is C.H. Long, a 39-year-old foreman at the JA ranch in the Texas panhandle, a place described as “320,000 acres of nothing much.” Once a week, Long would ride into town for a store-bought shave and a milk shake. Maybe he’d take in a movie if a western was playing. He said things like, “If it weren’t for a good horse, a woman would be the sweetest thing in the world.” He rolled his own smokes. When the cowboy’s face and story appeared in LIFE in 1949, advertising exec Leo Burnett had an inspiration. The company Philip Morris, which had introduced Marlboro as a woman’s cigarette in 1924, was seeking a new image for the brand, and the Marlboro Man based on Long boosted Marlboro to the top of the worldwide cigarette market.