Marlboro Man
The Marlboro man was part of an advertising campaign by Philip Morris in the 1960s and 1970s for their Marlboro cigarette. The image involved a rugged cowboy, alone in nature with a cigarette.
The Marlboro ad campaign is said to be one of the most brilliant ad campaigns ever. It transformed a feminine campaign, with the slogan "Mild as May", into a masculine one in a matter of months.
Although there were many Marlboro Men, all masculine men with tattoos on their hand, the cowboy tested to be the most popular. This led to the Marlboro Cowboy and Marlboro Country campaigns.
The models who portrayed the Marlboro man were Darrell Winfield, Dick Hammer, Dean Myers, Robert Norris, Wayne McLaren, David McLean and Tom Mattox.
In the 1990s, McLaren and McLean died, respectively, of lung cancer and of cancer that spread from the lungs.