The Commercial Cowboy

Darrell Winfield, who died last month, was not the first Marlboro Man, but he was the realest. Philip Morris couldn't have found a better spokesperson. For decades, Marlboros were considered a women's cigarette. According to this article, "Their debut slogan in 1924 was 'Mild As May.' Early ads presented black-and-white sketches of listless flappers, slouched over an ashtray at a bistro table—or a sultry profile of a Gibson girl whose dark lipstick remained unblemished after a drag. It wasn’t until the 1950s that, as a Stanford study put it, the brand underwent a 'sex change.'" And that change was spearheaded by the image of the dusty, ultramasculine, hard-working cowboy ~ never mind that fact that most hard-working cowboys chewed rather than smoked their tobacco: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/02/the-real-marlboro-man/385447/#disqus_thread