This time the brand is Marlboro Ultra. As can be noted elsewhere on this site Philip Morris, the producers of Marlboro , have made more use of semi-subliminal advertising material than any other company. If this example is typical, they would seem to find their techniques eminently exportable. A s with most such ads, a superficial look gives the impression of a pleasant evening scene, with the Marlboro cowboy and the American landscape of Monument Valley or somewhere similar silhouetted against the night sky. Casting its reflected light on the scene is the moon, its shape somewhere between that of a crescent and a half moon.
T ake a closer look at the moon and note what has been depicted there.
The reader should appreciate that it can be taken for granted in this type of advert that it is not a natural picture of the moon. Such ads are produced very carefully to convey a specific meaning or set of meanings. In this instance, as is often the case with Marlboro cigarette ads, this ad has a sexually oriented image embedded in it, as is noted below. There are similaries and differences, which will be noted below. A s the moon does not rotate on its axis like the earth, nor reverse itself, left to right.