Marlboro (, ) is an American brand of cigarettes owned and manufactured by Philip Morris USA (a branch of Altria) within the United States and by Philip Morris International (PMI, now separate from Altria) in most global territories outside the US. The brand was introduced in 1924, initially marketed towards women before it evolved towards men during the 1950s. Marlboro would eventually become one of the world's most valuable brands and best-selling products, and it was widely known for its advertising featuring the Marlboro Man, a fictional cowboy.
Today, Marlboro continues to be one of the largest brands of cigarettes in the entire world. It has a strong presence in Canada, United States of America, Indonesia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Philippines and India. Marlboro's largest cigarette manufacturing plant is located in Richmond, Virginia. In Canada, a separate product using the Marlboro brand is owned and manufactured by Imperial Tobacco Canada, while the international product is distributed in Canada by a unit of PMI under the name "Rooftop". Also in India, a separate Marlboro product is made and marketed by Godfrey Phillips India.
History
In 1847, the family of British tobacconist Philip Morris opened a shop on Bond Street, London, selling tobacco and rolled cigarettes. After Philip's death in 1873, his brother Leopold and widow Margaret continued the business, growing it and opening a factory on Great Marlborough Street, London, from which the name was taken.
A New York subsidiary was opened in 1902 to sell many of its cigarette brands. The name '"Marlboro"' was registered in the US in 1908 although no cigarette was marketed under this name until 1923. In 1924, the brand was launched. They were first marketed as "America's luxury cigarette" and were mainly sold in hotels and resorts.
Around the 1930s, it was starting to be advertised as a women's cigarette, based on the slogan "Mild As May". However, as early as 1885, a brand called "Marlborough" was already being marketed as a "ladies' favorite" by Philip Morris & Co.
Shortly before World War II, the brand's sales stagnated at less than 1% of tobacco sales in the US and was briefly withdrawn from the market. After the war, Camel, Lucky Strike and Chesterfield were the only common cigarettes.
After scientists published a major study linking smoking to lung cancer in the 1950s, Philip Morris repositioned Marlboro as a men's cigarette in order to fit a market niche of men who were concerned about lung cancer while also concerned with masculinity if they smoked a filtered cigarette usually marketed to women. The Leo Burnett advertising agency solved the problem by a new style of advertising that dispensed with copy and created a visual personality for the brand. Marlboro ads now featured masculinity. The Marlboro Man was a sea captain, gunsmith, athlete and cowboy.Chris Harrald, and Fletcher Watkins, The cigarette book: the history and culture of smoking (2010) p. 145
Part of Marlboro's rise in market share was its ability to produce "milder, more aromatic, sweeter, and less harsh" cigarettes by adding ammonia to the tobacco. Further usage of diammonium phosphate allowed Marlboro to free base the nicotine in tobacco, allowing for more efficient delivery. Marlboro kept this process secret for many years, as freebasing is the same process used to produce crack cocaine from normal cocaine. Some experts have called the product that Marlboro sold "crack tobacco."
The first Marlboro cigarettes manufactured outside of the United States were produced in Switzerland in 1957 when Philip Morris International signed an agreement with Neuchâtel-based Fabriques de Tabac Réunies, before acquiring them 6 years later.
In the late 1960s, Marlboro "Longhorn 100's" were introduced. Although color-coded with gold, they were full flavor cigarettes, not lights. In 1972, Marlboro became the best-selling brand of tobacco in the world.
In order to comply with a 2006 court ruling in United States v. Philip Morris USA, Inc., et al., Philip Morris (and all other cigarette companies) are now prevented from using words such as "Lights", "Ultra-Lights", "Medium", "Mild", or any similar designation that may yield an impression of being safer than regular full flavored cigarettes. Thus Marlboro and other cigarette companies use only color-coding instead; for example, Marlboro Lights are now called Marlboro Gold Pack.
Philip Morris responded to the popularity of Pall Mall, the number three brand, by pushing Marlboro Special Blends, a lower-priced cigarette.
In 2013, Philip Morris International introduced "Marlboro 2.0". The pack design was changed; the dark red was replaced with a lighter red, the "Marlboro" and Philip Morris logo became ribbed and transparent, and around 2017 a special "Smart SEAL" was introduced to keep the stored cigarettes fresh for a longer period of time. The Marlboro 2.0 packs are mainly available in Europe and some parts of Africa, Asia and Latin America, but not in the US or in countries with plain packaging laws.
In 2015, Philip Morris announced they would introduce a "Firm Filter" to their Marlboro Red, Gold, Silver Blue, Ice Blast and White Menthol variants. Philip Morris managing director for the UK and Ireland, Martin Inkster, said that the Firm Filter technique was added to "offer quality you can feel and it is a cleaner way to stub out your cigarette".
In January 2023 the US Food Drug Administration approved of marketing around the U.S. for multiple Marlboro Vape Heatsticks, Sienna Heatstick, Amber Heatstick & Bronze Heatstick.
Advertising In the 1920s, advertising for the cigarette was primarily based on how ladylike the filter cigarette was, in an attempt to appeal to the mass market. To this end, the filter had a printed red band around it to hide lipstick stains, calling it "Beauty Tips to Keep the Paper from Your Lips".
The red and white package was designed by designer Frank Gianninoto. The repositioning of Marlboro as a men's cigarette was handled by Chicago advertiser Leo Burnett. The proposed campaign was to present a lineup of manly figures: sea captains, weightlifters, war correspondents, construction workers, etc. The cowboy was to have been the first in this series. While Philip Morris was concerned about the campaign, they eventually gave the green light.
Marlboro's market share rose from less than one percent to the fourth best-selling brand. This convinced Philip Morris to drop the lineup of manly figures and stick with the cowboy, later known as the Marlboro Man. From 1963, the television advertisements used Elmer Bernstein's theme from The Magnificent Seven.
Over the years, Philip Morris has made many billboard, poster and magazine adverts.
Philip Morris also made various sports-related billboards, stickers and other memorabilia throughout the years, mainly promoting the Marlboro brand via its McLaren and Ferrari teams partnerships in places like Russia and Monaco.
Through licensees, Philip Morris sells various merchandising products, such as lighters, ashtrays, sunglasses and other accessories, which are sometimes given away to the target group as part of marketing promotions.
In 1983, the campaign "Marlboro Adventure Team" was launched in Germany, in which purchasers of the brand could apply to win a trip to the USA to live like the "Marlboro Man", as well as a plethora of different clothing items and accessories.
Post-Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement
In the aftermath of the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement, Marlboro, then the leading cigarette brand in the United States, was greatly restricted in its capacity to advertise its product offerings. Philip Morris thus shifted primarily to 'point of sale' and mail advertising. By 2005, Marlboro had exclusive contracts with almost half of the country's retailers to display and advertise its premium offerings in prominent locations.
By 2000, the company had adopted the Marlboro Miles rewards catalog as a means of incentivizing consumer loyalty. In 2009, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned an earlier court judgement which had found that the proof-of-purchase system it utilized was by definition a 'gift certificate' program. This secondary judgement allowed Philip Morris to revoke the validity of 'Five Miles' products after a certain date.
Sport sponsorship According to Ellen Merlo, vice president of marketing services at Philip Morris, quoted in a 1989 Marlboro advertisement:Jordan Goodman, Tobacco: Its History and Culture (2005) 2:595.We perceive Formula One and Indy car racing as adding, if you will, a modern-day dimension to the Marlboro Man. The image of Marlboro is very rugged, individualistic, heroic. And so is this style of auto racing. From an image standpoint, the fit is good.
Formula One
Marlboro is known for its association with motor racing. This started in the season with the sponsorship of the Formula One team BRM. The first win for a Marlboro-sponsored Formula One car was achieved at the 1972 Monaco Grand Prix by Jean-Pierre Beltoise driving for the BRM team. In and , the cigarette giant backed the Frank Williams Racing Cars team, whose cars were registered as Iso-Marlboro.
In the 1974 season, under the leadership of advertising executive and eventual Formula One power broker John Hogan, Marlboro became associated with the McLaren team. The team won their first World Constructors' Championship as well as first World Drivers' Championship (for Emerson Fittipaldi) in the first season of the partnership between McLaren and Marlboro. The team won another drivers title in for James Hunt. Following that, the partnership went through a dry patch until Ron Dennis's Project Four Organization took over the team in . Marlboro-sponsored McLaren triumphed Formula One for much of the 1980s and early 1990s, with Niki Lauda, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna between them winning the Drivers' Championship all but one year from to . After the departure of Ayrton Senna at the end of the season, Marlboro McLaren never won a race again. Marlboro ended their sponsorship of the team at the end of the season, which ended the red and white McLaren livery. McLaren was sponsored by West from the start of the season onwards. McLaren and Marlboro had the longest sponsorship deal between a team and its title sponsor in Formula One history, which lasted for 23 consecutive seasons (–).
Over the years, McLaren altered the Marlboro livery to comply with regional anti-tobacco sponsorship laws which were in place in countries like France, the UK and later Germany. The Marlboro logo was replaced by a chevron in , with a barcode in and and from to or with "McLaren" in and from to and to . At the 1986 Portuguese Grand Prix, Keke Rosberg's car was painted yellow and white rather than red and white, to advertise Marlboro Lights.
Marlboro also sponsored Scuderia Ferrari's drivers since the season (the brand appeared only on helmets and suits) but only in Marlboro became a minor sponsor on Ferrari's Formula One cars. Until then, Enzo Ferrari allowed only technical suppliers brands to appear on his team cars. In , Marlboro became the main sponsor (surpassing Goodyear, and making that Ferrari painting the car's high air boxes were painted red and white), eventually becoming the title sponsor in when the team was officially renamed . Marlboro remained Ferrari's title sponsor until the 2011 European Grand Prix and the main sponsor until the end of the season.