Marketing Flashback

Chess Set (1)

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Netflix’s show The Queen’s Gambit has reignited interest in the game and fueled demand for chess sets. Just for fun, this 10-part series exhumes chess-themed advertising from the same era (mid-1950s through 1960s).


Until the mid-1950s, Marlboro was known as a women’s brand of cigarettes! The agency Leo Burnett executed a campaign in which rugged tattooed men were shown holding, e.g., a fishing rod, a shotgun, a piece of machinery… as well as a slide rule and (in the example shown here) a chess piece.

Tags: Chess