From the Physician to the Marlboro Man

Abstract

The “More doctors smoke camels” advertising campaign ran from 1946 until 1954. The campaign featured a series of advertisements centered around and celebrating the physician in American life. Neatly bookending the demise of the physician was the appearance, in 1955, of the Marlboro Man. The dominant figure in the Marlboro Man campaign was the cowboy. This shift away from the physician to the cowboy will be situated in the context of 1950s fears about smoking and health. The similarities and differences in the masculine virtues of the physician and the cowboy will be analyzed in terms of the relationship between men and health in mid-century America.