In Search of the American Cowboy.

Perhaps one of the most romanticized images in America at the turn of the century is that of the Wild West. One of the most celebrated images of the Wild West was that of the cowboy, America's defender of the frontier. The American cowboy became a figure of construction by businessmen and literature, and in recent years, a figure of reconstruction by modern historians. The businessmen and literature presented a highly glamorized view of the …

…sanction... to proselytize for the American Way of Life is a cultural imperative based in religion, a self-righteous sense of duty, and in deeply ingrained racism.[7] MODERN However, the eastern advertising world used the cowboy's outfit as a very powerful marketing tool when they created the Marlboro man. In spite of the original feminine purpose of the Marlboro cigarettes, "once he is dressed in cowboy myths, the Marlboro man becomes macho personified: a "real" man."