12/7/2003: Marlboro baby

As my ability to post things over weekends and holidays just goes to crap, hot_pastrami suggests this item from James Lileks. Lileks is a columnist and noted netizen, but he's also an ace collector and cataloguer of the culture of America's recent past. This month he is offering up something interesting every weekday instead of his usual Bleat, and this was Friday's offering, and like pastrami says, it's certainly IotD material.

Great find UT and PAS. Most people don't know Marlboro was introduced as a womens brand. Even later, the Marlboro Man was supposed to wet panties, not jock straps. The success with men is a result of the emasculation of the American Male. Oh...you're not a pussy, you say. Prove it...quit smoking.:p

Marlboro man comes out of the closet

Funny how a small stick of highly addictive dried leaves is somehow
a female product or a male product. I have always been annoyed at
how companies target their products at certain groups.

Have you ever seen a man smoke Virginia Slims?
How about Silver Thins?

They are just a stupid advertising images that are created and promoted by marketroids, but they are tough to shake.

I wonder how the market bucked the product image and made Marlboro into a manly man's smoke.




Boy that baby is adorable, I bet he grew up to die of lung cancer.


______

BTW, I've been lurking for at least half a year on Cellar Image,
and just recently have decided to explore the rest of this place.
It looks like a great Cellar, aside from the problem with the mold damage in the damp corners .

(Oh, and that whole April debacle was a riot!)

Re: Marlboro man comes out of the closet

Re: Marlboro man comes out of the closet

Man, I just hate it when I feel over-smoked.

Yeah, I agree, NBN...leaves your skin all dry, yet still blackened and greasy. Most people just don't know that the perfect smoking job requires a long smoke at a lower temperature...

Wow, the Marlboro man looks really young in this ad...

Weeell... I know it never really was the intention of this thread to attack smokers, per se, simply to highlight low-brow advertising of the past... but I feel the need to step up to defend smokers...

First up, when I was in HS and early college I was another full-of-anger anti-smoker. My step-dad smoked like 3 packs a day, my clothes always stunk like smoke, it was nasty, I felt smokers imposed on everyone else around them, etc etc.

Lo and behold eventually I became a smoker. And even though I don't smoke now, I still feel some affinity for my smoker allies.

Smoking is really very similar to drinking-to-get-drunk. See, in HS/college a lot of kids drink with the sole intent to get completely blitzed. However, as life goes on 'normal' people outgrow that tendency. Sure they may get ripped on holidays, but that every-weekend-binge isn't really attractive anymore. Binge drinking isn't healthy... but it's done to improve the enjoyment of a social situation.

Same with smoking.

When you're a smoker suddenly you have an excuse to walk up and talk that cute girl/guy. "Excuse me, can I bum a cig?".... "Hey, do you have a light?", and next thing you know you're in a conversation. Not to mention that it also gives you something to do. There are times when you're at a party or a bar and you're sitting there feeling stupid b/c all you can do is sit there and twiddle your thumbs. However, if you have a smoke then you're doing something. It gives your hands something to do, something to focus on, you feel less like a heel b/c now you can feel like the marlboro man- cool but distant. Quiet because you choose to be. As opposed to being a Nelson sitting on the couch all by your lonesome.

See, in a party/bar it's all about a connection. You have to have *something* in common with people to be able to initiate a conversation. (This is more prevalent in college days). Smoking is an instant "in". If a party is really starting to drag, just grab your smokes and step outside with the smokers, you instantly have a circle of friends just b/c you're all smokers together.

Sure, I'm overdramatizing everything a bit... but it's still true for the most part. (It's the reason why 90% of all fraternity/sorotity members smoke... it's another social connection tool).

And besides, most smokers now are very respectful of non-smokers space. They only smoke in designated areas, etc etc. Parents smoking around their kids, people w/ no respect of other people's space... sure, those people deserve to be shot.

But smoking... honestly it's not THAT bad. Smoking one-pack-a-week, done only at a bar or a party... is it really any worse for you than going to a party friday and saturday and drinking enough beer to drown a sailor? Or even as bad as eating Burger King every single day?

People are just so anti-smoking now it's almost ridiculous.

"Also, almost every cigarette smoker I've ever known thinks it's OK to just throw their cigarette butts on the ground, out the car window, etc. I'm not an environmental freak, but I don't think chucking garbage on the ground is great idea. But that's just me."

Ok - I admit it - and this might loose some of my admirers on here - but I do smoke. Why? Can't for the life of me tell ya. It started out as a social thing - but now its a stress reliever/stay out of prision because I went out and had a smoke instead of ripping some dumb-asses face off and beating them with it.

But - however - I try and be a polite smoker. I pick up my butts. I don't fling them out into the environment.

HOWEVER - I am polite to a point. If you get militant with me - I'm blowing it in your face. I love my best friend dearly - but when she bitches and complains after hanging out in a bar (where everyone else at the table and everyone around her is smoking) and then blames me because her coat stinks??!! She also bitches cause I smoke in my car. (Trust me - its either smoke or I will be arrested for running people down after they have pissed me off). Fine - don't ride in my car. My BF smokes too - we smoke while we game. She comes over and complains because it smells like smoke. OK - here is a real simple solution - DON'T COME OVER THEN!!!

Granted - we don't smoke around the kids. We know its a bad habit. Its a habit that both of us should break. (And we have tried a couple of times to quit - doesn't seem to work too well.) But if I have to hear one more speech about it - I think I'm gonna go aggro.

Thank you for letting me blab out my feelings. Please proceed and have a happy day!

I don't like the "treating the whole world as a recepticle for butts" thing either.

Any of you who have ever seen me smoke in an outdoor venue know what I do ... the butt gets twisted between my fingers a bit until the ember falls to the ground, which gets stomped on ... and the filter is checked for remaining ember, then goes into (usually) my watchpocket (which has no other useful purpose on modern bluejeans) to be discarded at the next available trashcan. I do the same thing in parking lots ... no just tossing.

I was even once complimented on this behavior by one of the dancers at a Pow-Wow.

It seems to largely descend into a war over territory. When smokers are in an area, people who don't want to die prematurely can't be in that area.

Smokers may have a right to give themselves cancer, but who has a more of a right to an area of territory?

Whosoever has the strength to hold it, of course.

And this could completely be a bit of smoker-urban-legend... but I *heard*...

That aren't cig butts bio-degradable now? Something like if you throw a butt on the ground it's less than just a couple of months and it's completely broken down?

I don't think so, Riddil. From personal observation, that may be true of the outside wrapper on the filter, but the fiber itself seems much more persistant. It won't even blow away like a dandilion when unwrapped.