3/10/2024 0 Comments Selling marlboro miles![]() ![]() In fact, the American Tobacco Company-one of the four giants which used to have a monopoly on cigarettes-it wanted to get women to smoke just as badly as Marlboro did. (laughs)They were capturing a minuscule portion of the cigarette market at that time.ĬH: Turns out, Marlboro wasn't the only cigarette company on the block with the bright idea of advertising to women. It was pretty much failing as a business. And slowly but surely, Marlboro's efforts started to make inroads.ĪB: So the advertisements are resonating with women, Marlboro's getting letters from women thanking them for the ads, more women are starting to pick up smoking, but it's actually not doing much for the brand itself. It hit ladies' clubs, charm schools, department stores, and nurses' lounges… covering etiquette, how to open the packages, avoid lipstick smears, and prevent fires-oh my god. Most women did not know how to smoke! So, Philip Morris sponsored a lecture series that toured the country and taught women the basics. After that, they also introduced a red rim around the cigarette, and that was meant to disguise the lipstick itself.ĬH: We are miles away from the Marlboro Man here.īut even as Marlboro and its parent company Philip Morris continued to work on making its cigarette look appealing to women, it had a bigger obstacle to tackle. So, what they did was actually create a grease-proof tip that would prevent that and it would keep your lipstick looking nice while you were smoking. The ads made it look like an essential accessory, as natural in a woman's hand as the lipstick on her lips.ĪB: There was a lot of concern that women's lipstick would actually get at the end of their cigarette. Actually, there used to be one gigantic company-a monopoly-until the US Supreme Court and a bunch of trust-busting congressmen put a stop to that in the 19-teens.ĬH: "Mild as May" was everything a woman could want in a cigarette. That's because it was already pretty locked down by four big tobacco companies. So they came up with the idea of the Marlboro brand, and in 1924, they introduced it as a cigarette brand for women.ĬH: 1924 was a really tough time for a newcomer to be making a play for the US cigarette market at all-never mind marketing to women. And in the 1920s, they really wanted to get a stronger foothold in the US market. Who would use their vote to advocate for temperance and respectability, and enforce their high moral standards on the broader population.ĬH: So where does the story of Marlboro start?ĪB: So it starts with Philip Morris, which used to be a British tobacco company. Instead, she wanted to empower women who embodied the old, Victorian ideals of womanhood. She wasn't trying to ally herself with women who were redefining femininity. Lucy Page Gaston, for example, was a vocal opponent of smoking and drinking alcohol. Some of the activists for women's rights actually went to great lengths to distance themselves from women who smoked. But even within the feminist movement, for some, smoking was taboo. It often indicates a user profile.ĬH: By 1920, American women had won the right to vote. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders.
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