Marlboro Man

I WORK IN the same industry that created the Marlboro Man. He's arguably the most powerful icon in advertising's history. For me, there has always been a certain sense of antipathy toward him, and awe. Awe at the way in which a brand can come to personify so much more than just the product -- a cigarette -- but also represent a lifestyle. The Marlboro Man stands for the rugged individual, a man who longs for simpler times, a man searching for the chance to escape to the wide-open spaces of Marlboro Country.

A federal jury in U.S. District Court in Baltimore convicted a 28-year-old Upper Marlboro man yesterday of helping to rob an Anne Arundel County bank in March. DaRen Gadsden was found guilty of bank robbery and aiding and abetting a bank robbery. Prosecutors said Gadsden checked out Sandy Spring Bank and 1st Mariner Bank, both in the 100 block of Jennifer Road in Annapolis, on March 1. Minutes later, Tyrone Mann Jefferson robbed the 1st Mariner Bank by vaulting over the counter and threatening tellers with a black pellet gun. Gadsden waited in his vehicle on the parking lot and was the getaway driver, prosecutors said.

A 30-year-old Upper Marlboro man was killed and his 4-year-old daughter was injured on White's Neck Creek in St. Mary's County Saturday when a boat being driven by a friend slammed into their vessel. Joseph Husick III was declared dead at St. Mary's Hospital. His daughter Shelby was flown by helicopter to Children's Hospital in Washington, D.C., where she was in critical but stable condition last night. The accident occurred at 8:30 p.m. Saturday as Husick's boat, with his daughter and three others aboard, followed a boat driven by Daniel Duringer of LaPlata.

Wendell Gauthier, 58, an attorney who won billions of dollars for victims in court battles over silicone breast implants and hotel fires before taking on the tobacco industry, died of liver cancer yesterday in New Orleans. Mr. Gauthier had a striking record of legal victories, winning huge judgments for victims of the 1982 crash of Pan Am Flight 759 in the New Orleans suburb of Kenner, hotel fires in 1980 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and in 1986 at DuPont Plaza in Puerto Rico, and for women claiming injuries from the silicone-gel implants.

NEW YORK -- Is the Marlboro Man about to kick the habit?He'll soon be taking his last drag if Smokefree Educational Services has its way.Today, as the Mets get set to play ball, 100 or so child and adult anti-smoking activists will descend on Shea Stadium to protest the Marlboro billboard that for the last nine years has dominated left field.They want the ad discarded and replaced with an anti-smoking message. And they say they have backers willing to pay the Mets the same amount for the billboard they believe the team is getting from Philip Morris -- about $240,000.

SAN FRANCISCO -- One day, the Joe Camel billboard advertised "genuine taste." The next day it read "Am I Dead Yet?"The Marlboro man's billboard turned into a real sleeper, changing from Marlboro to Marlbore overnight, with the word "yawn" added near his mouth for effect.And just last weekend, Apple Computer Corp.'s Amelia Earhart billboard was changed from "Think Different" to "Think Doomed," a reference to the legendary pilot's fatal attempt to fly around the globe.The Billboard Liberation Front is back, bringing its own twist on advertising and social commentary to billboards of Apple and other companies in the San Francisco area, the latest in a 21-year history of ad alterations.

Wayne McLaren, 51, an anti-smoking crusader who said he was a former "Marlboro Man," died Wednesday after battling lung cancer. Mr. McLaren, who said he smoked 1 1/2 packs a day was diagnosed with cancer about two years ago.

The Supremes have ruled that if Bawlmer County looks hard enough for reasons to keep Bethel Church out of Owings Mills, it probably can.The line has to be drawn somewhere and Disney Co. has drawn it between Ellen and Insane Clown Posse.Whatever landed in Roswell, N.M., 50 years ago did it as much good as Nessie did Drumnadrochit.Marlboro Man is a wimp.Pub Date: 6/27/97

Wendell Gauthier, 58, an attorney who won billions of dollars for victims in court battles over silicone breast implants and hotel fires before taking on the tobacco industry, died of liver cancer yesterday in New Orleans. Mr. Gauthier had a striking record of legal victories, winning huge judgments for victims of the 1982 crash of Pan Am Flight 759 in the New Orleans suburb of Kenner, hotel fires in 1980 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and in 1986 at DuPont Plaza in Puerto Rico, and for women claiming injuries from the silicone-gel implants.

Aliteral-minded television commentator opined recently that the quickest way to stop young people from smoking cigarettes would be for the regulatory agencies to abandon their mealy-mouthed warning labels and, instead, force the manufacturers to festoon the dead-center of each cigarette pack with an unequivocal, somber and intimidating skull-and-crossbones. That, the commentator declared, would alert those kids to the true consequences of smoking.Wrong!If I were a 13-year-old worrying about getting through my first cigarette session without retching embarrassingly in front of my friends, my decision would be made for me right then.

MEXICO CITY - Monday marked the first anniversary of Vicente Fox's victory over the deeply entrenched Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Known as the "Marlboro Man" because of his 6-foot-5-inch height and rugged good looks, President Fox has not only opened a new chapter in politics at home, he has persistently wooed the United States, even as he acts to reduce dependence on the "colossus of the North." For years, Sen. Jesse Helms of North Carolina - ever the family grouch - rejected Mexican suitors as good-for-nothings because of their penchant for corruption, drug trafficking and rigged elections.

I WORK IN the same industry that created the Marlboro Man. He's arguably the most powerful icon in advertising's history. For me, there has always been a certain sense of antipathy toward him, and awe. Awe at the way in which a brand can come to personify so much more than just the product -- a cigarette -- but also represent a lifestyle. The Marlboro Man stands for the rugged individual, a man who longs for simpler times, a man searching for the chance to escape to the wide-open spaces of Marlboro Country.

A 30-year-old Upper Marlboro man was killed and his 4-year-old daughter was injured on White's Neck Creek in St. Mary's County Saturday when a boat being driven by a friend slammed into their vessel. Joseph Husick III was declared dead at St. Mary's Hospital. His daughter Shelby was flown by helicopter to Children's Hospital in Washington, D.C., where she was in critical but stable condition last night. The accident occurred at 8:30 p.m. Saturday as Husick's boat, with his daughter and three others aboard, followed a boat driven by Daniel Duringer of LaPlata.

SAN FRANCISCO -- One day, the Joe Camel billboard advertised "genuine taste." The next day it read "Am I Dead Yet?"The Marlboro man's billboard turned into a real sleeper, changing from Marlboro to Marlbore overnight, with the word "yawn" added near his mouth for effect.And just last weekend, Apple Computer Corp.'s Amelia Earhart billboard was changed from "Think Different" to "Think Doomed," a reference to the legendary pilot's fatal attempt to fly around the globe.The Billboard Liberation Front is back, bringing its own twist on advertising and social commentary to billboards of Apple and other companies in the San Francisco area, the latest in a 21-year history of ad alterations.

An Upper Marlboro man was charged with first-degree murder yesterday in the stabbing death of a Woodlawn woman whose 4-year-old daughter summoned neighbors for help, Baltimore County police said.Darryl James Medley, 29, was charged in the stabbing death Friday of Rae Antoinette Corpening, 31, in her two-story townhouse in Woodlawn, police said. He was being held without bail last night at the Baltimore County Detention Center.Police said Medley was the father of Corpening's 4-year-old daughter.

Aliteral-minded television commentator opined recently that the quickest way to stop young people from smoking cigarettes would be for the regulatory agencies to abandon their mealy-mouthed warning labels and, instead, force the manufacturers to festoon the dead-center of each cigarette pack with an unequivocal, somber and intimidating skull-and-crossbones. That, the commentator declared, would alert those kids to the true consequences of smoking.Wrong!If I were a 13-year-old worrying about getting through my first cigarette session without retching embarrassingly in front of my friends, my decision would be made for me right then.

"JOE CAMEL? I like him,'' I said, speaking to my editor about the ongoing effort to erase the closest thing the tobacco industry has to the Playboy bunny."Why?'' was her next question.My reply: "He's cool.''The first cigarette I ever remember seeing was a Kool, in that shiny green and white package with the gold trimming and the "Os" intertwined. From that moment on I was hooked -- on the idea of smoking.I was too young, and too nausea-prone, actually to spark up a "pimp stick,'' but I decided that as soon as I was old enough -- or acquired an immunity to disgusting smoke -- it was all gravy, baby.

Many artists today are concerned with the issue of identity: finding oneself, whether through exploring one's body, one's family, one's race or gender or one's cultural heritage.Angela Franklin has made this concern the subject of "The Soul of a Tree," this year's edition of the University of Maryland Baltimore County's annual regional show, generally titled "A View from Baltimore to Washington."Franklin, an artist, here proves herself a deft curator, too. She defines the show not only thematically but also in terms of medium by choosing artists who work in wood and wood products.

The Supremes have ruled that if Bawlmer County looks hard enough for reasons to keep Bethel Church out of Owings Mills, it probably can.The line has to be drawn somewhere and Disney Co. has drawn it between Ellen and Insane Clown Posse.Whatever landed in Roswell, N.M., 50 years ago did it as much good as Nessie did Drumnadrochit.Marlboro Man is a wimp.Pub Date: 6/27/97

"JOE CAMEL? I like him,'' I said, speaking to my editor about the ongoing effort to erase the closest thing the tobacco industry has to the Playboy bunny."Why?'' was her next question.My reply: "He's cool.''The first cigarette I ever remember seeing was a Kool, in that shiny green and white package with the gold trimming and the "Os" intertwined. From that moment on I was hooked -- on the idea of smoking.I was too young, and too nausea-prone, actually to spark up a "pimp stick,'' but I decided that as soon as I was old enough -- or acquired an immunity to disgusting smoke -- it was all gravy, baby.