Acrylic paint on Marlboro Gold cigarette boxes, canvas on board, acrylic UV shadowbox frame.
48" x 36" x 3"
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Leo Burnett was one of America’s great icon-makers. From his Chicago studio came characters that blurred advertising and mythology — and in 1954, he introduced another: the Marlboro Man.
Marlboro cigarettes existed long before the cowboy. Originally marketed as a refined luxury product, the brand needed a new image in a postwar culture obsessed with masculinity. Burnett responded with pictures, not explanations, until one image endured.
The cowboy.
The first Marlboro Man was a real Colorado rancher named Bob Norris. Chosen for his authenticity rather than performance, Norris embodied a quiet American presence. He never smoked.
For fourteen years, his image appeared in countless print advertisements, repeated until it became inseparable from the brand. Others later assumed the role, but the silhouette — solitary, rugged, unmistakable — remained the same.
This work explores the space where art, commerce, and mythology converge, and how repetition can transform an image into cultural memory — and ultimately, legend.
