Manufacturing the myth of Marlboro County: A cultural history of Philip Morris and Leo Burnett Hong Kong's marketing strategies, 1976--1981

By analyzing corporate documents, oral histories, and television commercials housed in the Marlboro Oral History and Documentation Project at the National American History Museum, I argue that repositioning Marlboro's faltering image in Hong Kong required Philip Morris and Leo Burnett executives to produce a modified version of Marlboro Country and America that signified American masculinity and leadership to appeal to the cultural values of Hong Kong youth. Moreover, I argue that the national and colonial histories of the United States and Hong Kong following World War II influenced the corporate dynamics between Chinese executives and Western expatriates who tailored Marlboro's nationalist symbols to make it the number one selling cigarette in Hong Kong and establish Phillip Morris's ongoing success in the Asian tobacco market.