10 Commercials That Changed Pop Culture Forever

7. Marlboro Cigarettes - "Come To Marlboro Country"

Tobacco advertising has been a shadow of its former self for decades, due to new laws that have placed restrictions on where tobacco ads can be displayed and the kinds of advertising tobacco companies can use. The biggest bombs dropped on cigarette ads were those dropped in 1970, which outlawed the advertising of cigarettes on television, and the one dropped in 1997, which banned the use of such tobacco-ad icons as Joe Camel and the Marlboro Man. I personally don't smoke, but, as an advertising buff, I particularly felt the loss of the Marlboro Man, for he's one of the finest advertising campaigns ever conceived. His finest moment comes during this 1966 commercial. This black-and-white ad gives us a glimpse of early morning rituals during a cattle drive. A group of cowboys gather around the chuck wagon, serving themselves breakfast. After eating, the cowhands reach into their saddlebags and dig out the other morning essential: Marlboro cigarettes. The commercial becomes somewhat cartoon-ish as every cowboy puts a coffin-nail between his lips and lights up, but the western music and artful cinematography take enough of the humorous edge off the visuals to make the commercial work. The closing voice-over, imploring us to come to Marlboro Country, is clunky and tends to jolt one out of the commercial, but it doesn't ruin the ad because everything before it is so well done. It was the effectiveness of commercials like this among youth that caused Congress to pass the aforementioned laws that did away with ads like this forever. It's a good thing that this was done, and we certainly can't deny Congress' moral decency in passing such laws, but it's still sad that we won't see advertisements like this again. Oh, well; at least we have YouTube, which gives stuff like this immortality. By the way, you movie buffs may recognize the music sting at the end of the commercial; it's lifted directly from the Western masterpiece The Magnificent Seven.