Marketing Success of Marlboro Cigarettes
The history of Marlboro cigarettes offers insight into one of the great advertising and marketing success stories of the 20th century. ... They introduced the Marlboro brand in 1924 as a womans cigarette based on the slogan: "Marlboro - mild as May". They targeted their female audience by featuring a series of ads depicting a feminine hand reaching for a Marlboro cigarette as well as full picture ads featuring stylish women posed in plush settings. ... By the 1950’s, sales of the Marlboro brand cigarettes were booming. During World War II however, Marlboro faltered and had to be taken off the market. ... This diminished the value of Marlboro cigarettes. In the mid 50’s, Readers Digest published articles claiming that cigarettes were deadly, and they linked smoking to lung cancer! This is when Philip Morris saw its chance to reintroduce Marlboro and market it as the "safer" filtered brand of cigarettes. ... Unfortunately for Marlboro, which was formerly known as the feminine cigarette, the new filters were considered an extension of the previous feminine image.