Question #1: I played an early commerical from the Marlboro campaign. Share some of your reactions to that specific ad. Remember to comment on how it imagines American masculinity in the 1950s. You may view the Marlboro footage below for further consideration but try to respond mostly to what I played in class.
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I was surprised when the video turned out to me mainly a montage, but I thoroughly enjoyed those very sort of matter-of-fact quotes that appeared throughout, mainly how Marlboro Reds are sometimes referred to as “Cowboy Killers.” But I do have to say, if these ads make you want to smoke, you are a fool. All this ad made me want to do is listen to Johnny Cash music…ah, Johnny…Overall, I found it somewhat informative and decently done. I thought the video could have been better, with some like terrifying dialogue to scare one away from cigarettes. Finally, I was surprised that “Marlboro Man” ended being opposed to smoking, as the beginning was happy and playful. I felt a sure tone shift when the music all of a sudden became dark and ominous; well done.
The Marlboro man commercial that we watched in class seemed overloaded with statements about what it means to be masculine, obviously with the clear implication that Marlboros will only enhance these qualities. Since this commercial was when the brand marketing was attempting to change Marlboro’s image from a more feminine cigarette to one for men, perhaps there is some overcompensation of an attempted masculine portrayal in this commercial. The man interviewed for the commercial seemed to be a sort of working-man archetype, discussing how smoking Marlboros and working on his car went together. He also talks about the features of these cigarettes, such as a filter and flip-top box, and essentially how manly they are. These features were part of what had previously defined Marlboros as feminine cigarettes, and this sort of redefinition of its features makes apparent how susceptible the impression of any product is to marketing.
I found this extremely interesting. It makes me realize how much the world has changed generation to generation. These advertisements made smoking cigarettes out to be the love of a man’s life. They made the impression that smoking cigarettes was the manly thing to do. It is also interesting that the cigarette were originally branded for women until it was associated with men in the 50s. No matter what kind of man you were the Marlboro man seemed to be directed towards you. The advertisement we saw in class also made smoking cigarettes into the masculine thing. They stated that if you smoked a cigarette you were the kind of guy that worked on a car, smoking also was associated with any type of working, and they even said that you could never forget to smoke a cigarette although you could forget to eat. Marlboro man then transformed into the cowboy, the ultimate man. The kind of man that could smoke a cigarette, was rugged, and tough. I loved that at the end of the Marlboro ad they stated that the two men they were advertising had lung cancer, proving that the ads really took a toll on their lungs.
The Marlboro cigarette ad that we viewed in class made several statements about what it meant to be a masculine American man. This brand of cigarette appealed to the working class American, and linked smoking with the idea of masculinity. Several of the images shown during the ad, portrayed rugged men, enjoying the taste of a Marlboro cigarette while performing daily activities such as working on their car, or herding cattle. Using a cowboy as the universal symbol for Marlboro’s enhanced this idea of being masculine and smoking because a cowboy was considered a “man’s man.” Any man who witnessed this commercial during this time, would be likely to go out and by a pack of Marlboro’s which would assimilate him with a tough cowboy. Another thing to note was how happy each of the men looked in the commercial. This marketing scheme attracted young boys and men to smoke cigarettes which were shown to improve their lives and build their own masculinity. It’s unfortunate that the men who lead Marlboro’s campaign both suffered from lung cancer, but that’s the risk of smoking.
The commercial we watched in class is a typical American man outside of his house. It aims to set a norm for American masculinity in the 1950s as an everyday man who is a hard worker, rugged and handy when it comes to fixing cars. It mentioned how it was easy for the man to forget about eating but never forgets to smoke. As he works on his car, he has a cigarette to keep him company. “I always smoke when I work, they go together.” If I were a man watching this commercial, this definitely would not make me want to go out and buy cigarettes. I think the cowboy ad series is a much more effective way of advertising the product. In this commercial, he said the box was interesting, but what is interesting about a box? The slogan at the end is even a bit boring, as the narrator is mono-tone and not too enthusiastic, “New Marlboro. Filter. Flavor. Flip top box. Popular filter price.” The clip above is more compelling with the music and the ideal of masculinity is captured with the image of the cowboy, a rugged, handsome man. Its amazing how people still continue to spend billions of dollars on something that is proven to cause cancer and other horrible things.
With all the commercials against smoking these days, it is odd to see an ad from the earlier integration of cigarettes into the market because it is such a contrast between now and then. The commercial associates smoking with the everyday life of being a man. I man likes to work on his car, and so he has to smoke while he does it. It seemed rather redundant to me the number of times the actor repeated that he needed to smoke, however, that could be because commercials today are so different. They are less explicit, but they still impact us as viewers and consumers. This commercial was saying that to be a man, you have to smoke Marlboro reds, and to experience what the actor was experiencing, and to take part in the lifestyle, you have to smoke. If you don’t, you’ll never be a Marlboro man, which itself is something that isn’t strictly defined. After all, a Marlboro man is a man who fixes his car while smoking, a man who rides a horse and shoots a gun like a cowboy while smoking, etc. Any sort of man can be a Marlboro man, if only there is a Marlboro cigarette in his mouth.
It was really interesting to watch the Marlboro ad in class, because having grown up surrounded by a strong anti-smoking sentiment, I have never really been exposed to this type of commercial. It is amazing to me that an ad could so explicitly link smoking Marlboro Reds with toughness and masculinity. The commercial wasn’t like newer cigarette commercials, which imply that link and are a bit more subliminal, it was a lot more in-your-face. The most interesting line was when the man being interviewed said “I always smoke Marlboro Reds when I’m working on my car,” or something to that effect. Again, it wasn’t some subtle connection, it was telling the viewer that tough people who work on cars smoke these cigarettes. My conception of cigarette ads (mostly from magazine ads) involves scantily-clad women smoking cigarettes and draped over men who are also smoking. It is interesting that this idea of masculinity (that attractive women wearing very little will be attracted to you) came from the type of masculinity in the Marlboro ad (that you can be tough and rugged). I just can’t believe such an ad campaign would work.
I agree with Joanna that seeing an add for cigarettes is strange because of the extreme commercials against cigarette smoking that are played today. Personally, I can’t watch this video without thinking of all of the harmful effects of cigarettes because it has been so engrained in our youth. The commercial definitely portrayed what society at the time felt a masculine man embodied. He spoke in short, to the point, sentences in a husky voice. He explained how he was skilled in working with his hands and that he liked to smoke while he was working. He said he would do it while he was taking the car apart, and then putting it back together. This really exposes the idea of what kind of work is seen as masculine. Working on cars, getting dirty, and building things were all seen as masculine things to do. There’s a reason they didn’t say the man liked to smoke while he was preparing dinner for his family or cleaning his kitchen. These actions were ultra feminine at the time and because women were typically purchasing these cigarettes with a filter Marlboro tries to present the idea that these cigarettes will make men more masculine with this ad.
I agree with what most of the class has already stated, it is odd to see such an in-your-face ad campaign for smoking cigarettes. Most of the class grew up during the D.A.R.E. period and we have not been exposed to this sort of commercial. The commercial signified what it meant to be a man during that period of time. The man in the commercial looked very masculine and fatherly almost. When he stated, “I always smoke when I work, they go together,” I was astonished because this ideal man would never be accepted in today’s society. I also find it very interesting that Marlboro cigarettes were originally geared towards women and considered feminine. The fact that these cigarettes are filtered and had a “flip-top box” originally appeared to be feminine. However, this ad is trying to say that just because you are smoking filtered cigarettes does not make you any less of a man, you just care about your health a little more.
I was trying to think of modern smoking commercials, and all I could think of were commercials trying to STOP people from smoking. It’s interesting how things have changed – decades ago, smoking was glamorous. It seemed like everyone smoked but no one knew the full extent of what could happen due to prolonged use. Now, smoking commercials and ads are discouraged and hardly seen. The specific commercial honestly made me laugh – he didn’t look like a manly man, he looked like a fool. This may be because of my opinion of cigarettes, but him going on and on about he’s so manly for smoking filtered cigarettes with a flip-top box just sounded ridiculous.
I agreed with Krystina’s interpretation of the Marlboro man from the ad that we saw in class. It really wasn’t a very apealing ad and frankly was really boring. I understood that it was supposed to signify the classic american man who enjoys working on his cars and mowing the lawn and whatever, but I just was kind of bored with the whole thing and thought that it wasn’t very convincing. I understand that the ad was trying to give the viewer a lot of info about the cigarette and how good it was for men because it used to be sold mostly to women but it was a little dry and needed something else, or maybe I am just used to fancy commercials that are used nowadays. Also I thought it was great when the ad said, “sometimes I forget to eat, but I never forget to smoke” that is pure genius. very manly.
I would have to agree with what most people are saying about how Marlboro used the masculine hobby of “working of your car” to appeal to the common man. The ad we watched in class definitely tried to appeal to the American male of the 50s. The ad made smoking out to be a necessary and natural aspect of American masculinity. The man in his ad just had to chain smoke while working on his car, a task seen as rugged and dirty. Marlboro pushed the idea that if a man smokes their cigarettes, they will seem manly enough to be working on cars and doing other physical, masculine activities. I also found it interesting how Marlboro made things like the filter and flip-top box, which were originally geared towards women, into perfectly male details. They did this by saying the filter really worked and made smoking taste better. The flip top box was geared towards men by making it sound practical and well-designed. Many men wouldn’t be attracted if they simply highlighted the design as being new and easy to use, but by making it sound more utilitarian, it draws men in.
I agree that it was very unusual to see such a pro-smoking ad after growing up in the current day. The ad seemed almost comical in the way that it presented cigarettes. To the man smoking seemed one of the most important objects in his life. Not only did he want to smoke regularly, but he had to every time he repaired his car. The ad pushed the idea that certain things could not be done without smoking, making cigarettes not a casual affair but a necessity. It was shocking how stupid the ad seems to think the public is. The filter that was made for women now suddenly is used to improve flavor and the flip-top is now practical and technical, giving it the impression of some sort of tool. What’s more surprising than the fact that the companies put out such mindless bullying ads is the fact that there sales soared afterward.
I noticed that the Marlboro commercial seemed seemed to use not only the cool guy pose (as discussed from The Defiant Ones) to make the Marlboro Man more attractive, but how it tried to make smoking appeal to more than simply a cool level, but a practical level. If I recall the person was being interviewed, being asked what they liked and such and one answer had to do with the box. It’s form, how it opens, how practical it is, as if that was incentive to smoke. Instead of referring to how relaxing the activity is, and after a brief allusion to its taste the commercial seemed to want to emphasize the fact that you should be smoking because it’s easy to do so, which I found rather shocking.
As most other people I thought it was really odd to see such an odd school advertisement for cigarettes. It was first off strange to me how the commercial was more like and interview and now days commercials are not like that at all (more racy, flashy, etc.). Also I found it amusing how the commercial advertised in general. When it said “a convinient flip top box” I was thinking that every cigarette box looks like that, and its funny that when that commercial was aired a carton was a novel idea and would attract people to smoking. On top of that both characters mentioned how these are cigarettes you can actually taste and how he likes them because he can smoke while hes doing manly things like working on his car… its funny how lines like those inspired so many people to start smoking over the years.
The general class response to Marlboro’s depiction of what a “man” was shows how much masculine ideals have changed since the 1950s. Based on the ad’s image the man working on his car with a house behind him, the 1950s conception of what a real man should be appeared to be one who had a home (and so, presumably, a family) but who definitively fell into the role of patriarch, and therefore “man,” by completing tasks deemed masculine by society. He would not only complete these tasks, but enjoy completing them, as a real man would, to the point of neglecting necessities such as eating. But he would never neglect to smoke, the ad assures us. Marlboro a little ham-fistedly equates smoking to the manly task of working on a car (“They go together”), and so proposes that smoking, too, is a manly task that should be, if you’re a real man, enjoyed. The 50s image of the middle-class family man being a masculine ideal is evident throughout this ad: as pointed out by other classmates, rather than representing smoking as glamorous and exciting, as later commercials attempted (a YouTube search spit out a commercial of kayaking and horseback riding, and even earlier – and perhaps even more glamorous – the Beatles smoking Marlboros), this commercial stars and is targeted toward the everyday man, with a strong emphasis on the practicality of Marlboro because of its convenience and flavor.
I also agree with most of the class in that seeing such a pro-tobacco ad is strange according to today’s standards where we have grown up with the D.A.R.E. program and those TRUTH commercials. Yet it is not surprising to me that ads like this exist because back in the day the hazards of smoking were not fully known and it was considered cool and glamorous to smoke. There were always characters in movies smoking all the time and making people want to be like them. The ads were made out to tell the audience that they could be cool and beautiful too if only they would jump on the bandwagon and smoke. The Marlboro man was the epitome of masculinity of the time; rugged and cool, there was even the use of the cool guy pose as Douglas pointed out. The whole working on the car and smoking connection was a good advertising technique because I feel that working on cars and fixing them up was something only real manly men did and it probably made people think “Oh he smokes and works on his car, maybe I should do the same.” Yet I couldn’t help but think about how many people must have watched this ad and started to smoke. It’s sad to think that the health risks caused by smoking were not mentioned and were probably not even given the slightest thought in making these commercials.
I thought that this ad was very interesting. It displayed an emphasis on the everyday working American man as a “manly man” and associated Malboro cigarettes with him. Clearly, advertisements such as this one appealed to the public in a positive manner back in the 1950’s, but that is not to say that that is the same for today. Nowadays we associate masculinity with cars, guns, and sports. However, going back to the ad we watched in class, I thought it was interesting and yet entertaining. It is unbelievable how much time has changed things. In the ad it almost seemed as if smoking Malboro cigarettes was a pleasure, a positive ad but not forceful in the way that it promoted smoking. It seemed as if it wasn’t selling a product but rather a way of life. As if every man should smoke because it is part of human nature.
I think it’s especially important that the commercial was in an interview form because it made it a more mundane form of advertising. It was like going into the average American man’s household territory on a Saturday and finding him working on his car, having his alone time. He is the man. He works and finally when he has time to do the things that he like to do he chooses to have the company of his cigarettes. Every working man has a house, takes care of his family and mows the lawn, so the commercial implies the social values of having a home and being able to escape with your own hobby and smoke your cigarettes.
I agree with someone who previously wrote about the ad campaign trying to market to the suburban man working on his car. I think that Marlboro used unique period in American history after WWII to change its marketing strategy to target men. After the war in with the spread of the suburbs and the creation of the stereotypical American baby boom family Marlboro made sure that their image of the baby boom patriarch included smoking. This may be sort of a stretch but I think that the later cowboy ads are trying to provide some sort of escapism from the very suburban life that they tried to dove tail in with to start. The cowboy ads all say “come to where the flavor is” the verb in that phrase is to come as in leave what you are doing and escape with a Marlboro. The cowboy west is portrayed as a sort of “authentic manliness” and by smoking Marlboros you can gain some of that authentic man
Viewing the Marllboro ads is imperitive to a study of masculinity because not only do the advertisements target the male constructions of the time, but they also create new constructions of their own. By this I mean that Marllboro tries to appeal to the male image which values individuality, hard work and innovation. The cowyboy immage is perfect for this because the cowboy is a symbol for independence and hard work. In the actual commercial they say that a Marllboro man smokes the entire time he is working in order to say somthing about a link between hard work and Marboro’s. I also thought it was interesting how they used the innovative box to say somthing about indivduality and innovation and how since the Marllboro man has both of those quality’s so should the consumer
I thought that it was interesting that the filtered cigarettes were being marketed towards men in the ad we watched in class. Before this, the public had generally viewed unfiltered cigarettes towards men and filtered towards women. In this ad, we see this rugged man working on his car, smoking a filtered cigarette. In order to market a product, the company must find someone who relates to all types of people. At the time, this man working on his car was the ideal man to be. Now, men smoking a filtered cigarette would not be seen as feminine or not as strong or as rugged as other men.
At this time in history, the cowboy was considered the epitome of masculinity. But what do we know about cowboys? They are the ideal “tough guys” Cowboys are somewhat considered loners and aren’t known for showing very much emotion. In the commercial, they portray “cowboys” as the spokesmodels for Marlboro. Considering the fact that cowboys aren’t known as very trusting, this commercial shows how “reliable” of a cigarette Marlboro is. They are alone in the wilderness all the time and their cigarettes were one of the only things they took with them, which says a lot to the viewing public. By portraying such a character and such a strong reliability factor, this commercial would touch the audience more than a regular silly commercial would.
I have already posted one response earlier, but I also just wanted to add what I think the Marlboro ads are saying about American masculinity, or basically, how I think they are trying to change its face in order to sell more cigarettes. Somehow, one is a real man (according to Marlboro campaign) if he works on his car to escape the harsh reality of his situation, and he also smokes while works, which is kind of like multitasking. More masculine aspects are the flip-top box for convenience, good taste, filter+flavor, popular filter price, therefore a real man is a smart shopper too.
The Marlboro commercial we watched in class did amuse me. It so blatantly used the logical fallacies that current advertisers know to hide more subtly. The message ‘you aren’t a real man if you don’t smoke our cigarettes was right in your face. Use our product and you will be cool, this product attracts women… this is a common advertising technique but this is one of the most outright examples of it I have seen. To create the image of manliness the guy in the commercial has a deep ruff voice. He used short sentences to get to the point. He is forceful and states his opinions as fact. They try to associate him and his cigarettes with all of what is considered good in American society. He is hard working and the picture of normalcy (which was a highly desirable goal at the time after WWII). He likes to go out and work on his car, which he does of course with his Marlboro reds in hand. He is so tough and focused that he sometimes forgets to eat when he is out working, however he never forgets to smoke. They go on to try to make every aspect of the cigarette distinctly male. The flip top box goes from pretty to a convenient and well designed tool, similar to the engine of a car (what could be manlier than that?). A couple of people mentioned that this add would not have made them wish to smoke. While that might in part be due to the fact that they have grown up in a different generation that has been conditioned from a young age to consider smoking bad, but I think some of it might also have to do with the purpose of the add. More than simply trying to get people to start smoking it is trying to redefine the image of their typically female cigarettes. Maybe people wouldn’t start smoking because of the add, but men who already smoke might now think of Marlboro when they next go to buy cigarettes.