What Happens When The Marlboro Man Leaves

After years of sashaying across the home screen, the lean and leathery cowboys of the Marlboro cigarette commercials will ride off into the sunset on New Year's Day. The fright-wigged models in Virginia Slims' television ads will take their last mincing turn as symbols of women's emancipation, and Winston's abrasively ungrammatical TV message will be ending for good, as a worn theme should. By act of Congress, promotions for cigarettes, which many studies have found to be a cause of cancer, heart disease and other ailments, will be barred from television and radio. Already some consequences of the big ban are beginning to appear.

During their waning time on television, cigarette makers are blowing a bundle to introduceand heavily promotenew brands. In recent weeks, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco has brought out Vantage, American Brands has introduced Maryland 100s, and Philip Morris has put on the market wintergreen-flavored New Leaf. The most unusual new item is Brown & Williamson's Laredo, which is a $2 kit that includes tobacco, paper, filters and a roll-your-own machine. It is fast finding favor among weekend pot smokers.

Sowing New Fields. Tobaccomen insist that the broadcast blackout will have little immediate impact on sales of established brands. Even so, the manufacturers are taking no chances. Companies are enlarging their sales forces, planning to spend more on posters in stores and to vastly increase the use of gift coupons, games and other promotional hoopla. Some executives are thinking about giving out more free samples, and sending them through the mails. One hint of things to come: Reynolds will underwrite its first big sports event, an $80,000 bowling tournament called the Winston-Salem Classic, which will be televised Feb. 20 by ABC. While non-tobacco firms will sponsor the show, the words "Winston" and "Salem" certainly will be mentioned. If other manufacturers pick up the idea, there could be a Pall Mall golf tournament, or a Viceroy auto sweepstakesall on TV.

Cigarette-ad budgets, now $271 million for all media, will probably be cut in half after January. Part of the money will go into sweetening the earnings report, promoting non-tobacco lines and acquiring new companies. Tobacco firms are speeding up their diversification. Last week Reynolds agreed to buy U.S. Lines, the shipping company, for $65 million. Reynolds, which now gets more than one-third of its sales from non-tobacco sources, has also expanded into freight transportation and foodChun King, Hawaiian Punch, My-T-Fine desserts. A few weeks ago, American Brands, formerly American Tobacco Co., agreed to buy Andrew Jergens, the hand-lotion and cosmetics manufacturer. American also owns or controls James Beam distillers, Duffy-Mott foods and Swingline, a maker of stapling machines. Liggett & Myers, which has moved into liquor, pet foods and household cleaners, gets just over half of its sales outside the tobacco field. Philip Morris owns Miller High Life beer, Clark chewing gum and Personna razor blades.

Billboard Windfall. A wholesale shift of cigarette ads into print media is unlikely, partly because tobacco companies fear that this would lead to another ban. Next year, magazines are conservatively expected to add about $8 million to the annual $50 million in cigarette advertising that they now carry. An estimated $34 million will be spent in newspapers, up from the present $16 million. American Cancer Society officials recently appealed to publishers for free space for antismoking ads similar to those that the Federal Communications Commission now requires on television. Cancer Society spokesmen say they expect the television spots to continue after January; network officials are still unsure. There will be a fast increase in spending on outdoor billboard ads, which tobaccomen figure are less likely than print ads to draw Government fire. Tobacco's spending on billboards could jump from an average of $7 million a year to $40 million next year, reports Advertising Age.

Ad agency chiefs argue bravelybut unconvincinglythat the loss of broadcast billing will not seriously hurt them. Reynolds' broadcast billings make up about $49 million of the William Esty agency's total of $139 million. Philip Morris spends $25 million on broadcasting through Leo Burnett; Brown & Williamson bills $25 million through Ted Bates; and Lorillard $17 million through Foote Cone & Belding.

Cigarette promotions account for 10% of the networks' ad revenues, and task forces of salesmen, notably from ABC, have been eagerly scouting for other advertisers to fill the gap. Their major targets: national retail chains, credit card companies, insurance companies, brokerage houses and all big firms involved in the travel business. Because of the economic slump, it is unlikely that the hole left by cigarette ads will be quickly plugged.

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