The mark "Marlboro" was registered in the US in 1908 although no cigarette was marketed under this name until 1923. In 1924 Philip Morris launched the Marlboro brand as a woman's cigarette.
They were first marketed as "America's luxury cigarette" and were mainly sold in hotels and resorts. Marlboro becomes a cigarette brand for men in 1954. Advertising for the brand claimed that Marlboro was as "Mild as May", and that, smokers need never feel "oversmoked" with a Marlboro.
During the 1950s Reader's Digest magazine published a series of articles that linked smoking with lung cancer. Philip Morris, and the other cigarette companies took notice and each began to market filtered cigarettes. The new Marlboro with a filtered end was launched in 1955. The
new Marlboro came wrapped in a revolutionary new package: the now famous flip-top box . It was bold, masculine and eye catching with its red and white stripe design.
Marlboro has been the world's No. 1 cigarette brand since 1972. Altria holds the rights to the Marlboro brand in the U.S., while Philip Morris International handles the brand overseas. In 2008, Philip Morris International (PMI) launched a new global brand architecture for Marlboro, which involved establishing three Marlboro brand families known as Red, Gold and Fresh.
History of Marlboro cigarettes
