Norm Clasen wasn’t a Marlboro Man, but the images he captured were at the core of the advertising campaign, created by Leo Burnett Worldwide, that captured the spirit of the American cowboy for nearly 50 years.
“They tried a lumberjack, they tried a motorcycle rider and they tried a football player,” Clasen said. “They tried all these themes that they thought would appeal to men — but none of it worked. Then they saw the cover of Life Magazine with a cowboy on it, and they said, ‘um, cowboy.’ They had found their theme, and that theme lasted for 50 years uninterrupted, and it was the most iconic ad campaign in history.“
On Saturday, Clasen, who turns 85 this month, will be in Steamboat Springs at the Jace Romick Gallery (833 Lincoln Ave.). Owner Jace Romick said Clasen is slated to speak at 6 p.m. or shortly after. The conversation will cover the photographer’s work, and he will also answer questions.
Romick said in addition to recognizable advertising campaigns, Clasen has also captured images around the world, and currently has a half-dozen limited-edition prints in the Jace Romick Gallery.
“I’m just honored to feature Norm’s work,” Romick said. “Norm’s work is as iconic as you can get, including the Marlboro Man collection. But the other thing most people people are not aware of is that he did a lot of the Lange boot company advertisements in the 1960s and 1970s. Many of the iconic Lange posters were his work.”
Clasen grew up in Southern California, where he was connected to ranching and the Western lifestyle. He attended the University of Colorado and had dreams of breaking into a talent-packed Buffaloes ski team, coached by Bob Beattie, that included the likes of Billy Kidd, Jimmie Heuga, Buddy Werner and Spider Sabich.
Clasen said he realized quickly that he couldn’t keep up with these speedsters, and he still recalls the day coach Beattie patted him on the back and said, “I don’t think you are going to make it.”
Nonetheless, he kept his love of skiing and the outdoors. After he graduated, he moved to Aspen in 1962, where he taught skiing.
“I realized that if I was going to teach skiing the rest of my life, I would have a short time living in Aspen,” Clasen said. “My dad was an illustrator, and I came from a pretty strong graphic background, so I opened up a little design studio doing the typical things that came along in the ski area in those days — designing menus, logos and brochures for the lodges and stuff like that.“
Clasen also realized he wasn’t seeing the kind of photography he needed and wanted. He decided to pick up a camera to see if he could do better.
“Give me a camera, and I’ll figure this out,” Clasen remembers thinking to himself. “Needless to say it took a little longer than I thought, but I started doing my own stuff, and before long, some of that stuff was being published in magazines in Europe, and wherever ski photography was.”
In the years that followed, Clasen grabbed the attention of outdoor companies like Smith, Demetre, Head skis and Lange — a new boot company that was looking to promote the world’s first plastic molded ski boots, which were manufactured in Dubuque, Iowa.
During that run, Clasen also connected with Marlboro, and company representatives asked him if he might know of a location where they could photograph a cowboy bringing a tree back home after cutting it down for a holiday season advertisement they were creating.
Clasen arranged for a small cabin near Aspen where the image was made, and that led to an opportunity to do a test shot for the agency — and then the first of many assignments he would take to help Philip Morris with the image for the Marlboro Man campaign
“Their photos had a look,” Clasen said. “They wanted their pictures to have a timeless look, a little bit soft, a little bit grainy. They had to be a little bit dusty and dirty, so that when you were going through a magazine and you came across a Marlboro advertisement, you knew immediately what that was.”
He said it took some work and some time before he could tap into it, but once he understood the timeless feeling of the old West that the company wanted, he was on board. He used his experience and knowledge of ranching to gain the trust of the cowboys he worked with, and used his skills with camera and film to create the look the advertising agency wanted.
“Obviously in those days, it was all analog cameras and all film, 35-millimeter film,” Clasen said. “The images were all shot on shot Ektachrome, because the film had that sort of grainy look anyway. So when you pushed it in your processing, you could get the grain to pop up a little bit, and you could get that rugged look. It took a while for me to get into that, and Leo Burnett was instrumental, helping me get there.”
This Saturday, Clausen will share stories of how the Marlboro Man was created, and give insight into his art and how it influenced one of the most iconic advertising campaigns of all time. Clasen said he has never smoked, and is often asked if he feels any guilt from promoting a company that produced cigarettes.
“I never really considered that what I was doing was something that was illegal, or something that was really going to harm people,” Clasen said. “I’m a professional photographer and I just wanted to do my job and do it well.“
John F. Russell is the business reporter at the Steamboat Pilot & Today. To reach him, call 970-871-4209, email jrussell@SteamboatPilot.com or follow him on Twitter @Framp1966.
