Things Sky isn’t
Sky would
Tim McGraw is a well established American country singer. He does a good job of embodying the Marlboro brand. I have written parody lyrics to his song “Live live you were dying” in which his doctor telling him all the ways he can improve his life through switching to Sky.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxDkWBvxHEI
I was in my early forties
with a lot of life before me
when a moment came that stopped me on dime (dr. telling him he can’t smoke or he will die)
I spent most of the next days
remembering my old ways (smoking)
talkin’ bout the options (qutting cold turkey, patches, etc.)
and talkin’ bout sweet time (remaining years left to live)
I asked him when it sank in
that this habit has to come to an end
What would you do?
if you were in my shoes?
he said if I were you…
(chorus)
switch to Sky usin’
no more lung abusin’
you will not stick out, because the end ain’t blue
and you’ll breathe deeper
and you’ll smell sweeter
and your family won’t have to be cryin’
and he said
with Sky you can have the chance
to smoke like you aren’t dying
If Marlboro were a theme park it would be sort of like a boardwalk/coney island type of place.
types of rides (classic favorites)
Food options (American boardwalk classics)
Marlboro Sky’s theme park would be a lot closer to Disney’s Epcot. Epcot itself stands for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. It is supposed to be a city from the future, complete with a monorail transportation system.
types of rides
Food options are much healthier and diverse then at other parks. They have a World Showcase which is a strip of pavilions that showcases 11 different countries cuisines and cultures. A futuristic, technologically advanced theme park goes well with the sky brand.
My idea is to have a phoenix represent Marlboro Sky.
Phoenix’s are a mythological bird that can attain new life through rising from the ashes of it’s predecessor. 
We could literally show a fiery/white hot Marlboro Sky rising from the ashes of an old cigarette, as a new and improved life. Which could then somehow fly off into the Sky to symbolize the opportunities rising from a fresh start, putting down cigarettes. Because electronic cigarettes don’t go out they can symbolize a long lasting, healthy life of a Phoenix , burning brightly. Because normal cigarettes can go out they symbolize death and bad health in this case, or unsustainable. The phoenix could potentially live forever as long as it doesn’t go back to burning the way it used to.
A phoenix could also symbolize the idea that it’s never too late to shift from normal cigarettes to an electronic one. Even if you think it’s no use and your smoking has done it’s damage, it’s never too late for a new beginning, a new life, and rising fire.
The song “Anna-Molly” by the band Incubus could be featured in this ad. Particularly the sample before the breakdown where the singer is doing some build up. He repeats the lyric “wait, there is a light, there is a fire”. The “fire” being the phoenix, that second chance, the hope of a new life.
I believe that Marlboro is to the Dallas Cowboys from 1960-1988 what Marlboro Sky is to the Dallas Cowboys from 1988-to present(Jerry Jones). It’s easy to see the obvious parallels between the two brands such as the fact that they are respresented by cowboys, are from the south, and changed the game of their respective fields.
Tom Landry(Cowboys head coach from 1960-1988) was an brave innovator as a coach and was responsible for inventing the still-popular-today 3-4 defensive scheme. 
He was a humble, religious man who never got caught up in the glitz and glamour of his team that was being billed as “America’s Team”. He was able to pioneer and change the game on-the-field from the sidelines. His hard work payed off for him as he held the position for 28 years cementing himself as one of the greatest football coaches of all time.
Jerry Jones is the Marlboro Sky of the Dallas Cowboys organization. He bought the franchise in 1988 and the first thing he did was get rid of the man who helped build the organization from the ground up, Tom Landry. He then proceeded to change the game from the front office. Most NFL owners don’t know too much about football so they take a relatively hands off approach and just deal with financial matters, the man behind the curtain. Jerry Jones is a rebel among owners and is the face of the entire organization (nightmare for a coach if you ask me). He is more involved in the day-to-day activities of his franchise than any other american professional sports owner. Not only is he in charge of finances, he also is in charge of general manger duties (drafting, signing, and cutting of players). His I-can-do-it-all attitude has helped his franchise become one the most profitable there is. He also spared no expense in 2009 when he built their state of the art, high tech new stadium that features a retractable roof as well as the world’s largest HD screen. He still stays true to his roots by keeping all the branding and uniforms as classic looking as possible. Love him or hate him, the man sure is an innovative owner. 
I was thinking about when daredevil Nik Wallenda completed a tightrope walk across the Grand Canyon a couple of weeks ago when I started brainstorming about another daredevil who attempted a similar feat. Evel Knievel attempted to jump the Snake River Canyon in a steam powered rocket. He can embody the Sky brand because of his own classic american bad ass look and wild, rebellious, daredevil attitude. He was also pushing the limits of daredevils by breaking new ground though the use of his technology. 
Switching gears a bit here, two rebels within the music industry are Jay-z and Kanye West. Marlboro is to Jay-z what Sky is to Kanye. Jay-z is though of as the OG or original gangster. He made it to the top from the bottom through being a hoodlum selling drugs and participating in illicit activities. Kanye made it to the top with the help of his “big brother” Jay-z. Kanye was never a street hardened thug or outlaw by any means but never misses a chance to be disrespectful or state his own opinion. Jay-z in a sense is the face of gangster hip hop(keeps it classic) while Kanye is the face of modern, experimental, new age hip hop that dabbles into dubstep, house, and other futuristic ways to make sounds. Their wild west is the rap game.
The music video for Kanye’s “Touch the Sky” features West parodying Evel Knievel’s jump over the Snake River Canyon. The video has many shots that show Kanye apparently walking in the clouds (in the Sky).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkwQbuAGLj4
Here is a parody of the lyrics that fit the Sky brand
I gotta testify, to get air like this you need to fly, and I’m not gon die, It’s a Marlboro Sky
now lets hit the Sky-igh-igh-igh-igh-igh la la la la la la la
(Top of the world, baby. T-Top of the world)
now lets hit the Sky-igh-igh-igh-igh-igh la la la la la la la
(Top of the world, baby. T-Top of the world)
One of Kanye’s more new-agey hip hop songs features a sample from Daft Punk’s “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger”. I also thought of some parody lyrics that can relate it back to the Sky brand. All the while in the music video his body is being upgraded by a supercomputer.
(Chorus) This cigarette don’t kill me, can only make me stronger
I need you to hurry up now(directed at guy fumbling with lighter and a half-full pack of cigarettes) Cause I wait much longer(rolls eyes and hits Marlboro Sky)
I know I could hit this right now, cigarettes can’t get much wronger (inside a building)
Man I’ve been puffin all night now, That’s how long Sky’s been on you (hate that line).
(in a building) I need it right now
I need it right now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsO6ZnUZI0g
I was brainstorming ideas of ways that people can be technologically rebellious when I heard a radio broadcaster comment on the whole NSA Edward Snowden Debacle.
I believe Edward Snowden’s actions in whistleblowing about the NSA were inherently rebellious and took advantage of the most advanced government spying technology in existence. Then he went rogue and left the country and is exposing U.S. corruption. Julian Assange, and Bradley Manning can also be put into this category because they revolutionized whistleblowing with their website Wikileaks.
When people download music illegally off of the internet they are in a weird way kind of like an “internet outlaw” who commits crimes online. Normal Marlboro used to have to shop lift at record stores, now that’s a thing of the past.
Again another way that people can commit crimes now that revolutionizes a black market industry is the 3D-printing of firearms. The illegal gun trade is already a huge market. Arms dealers and mafia bosses alike would use this technology to be efficient. They could even print electronic cigarettes.
There’s a short feature from the intro to Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life called The Crimson Permanent Assurance. This 15 minute short film features an elderly Brittish accounting firm rebelling against their corporate masters by acting as if they’re pirates and forcing their supervisor to walk a makeshift plank out of the window. They then set sail for a big urban city full of skyscrapers that dwarf their little building. They attack and board the building of Very Big Corporation of America and start taking over. I really just loved this piece of creative work but its also sortof a futuristic twist on pirates that can relate back to Marlboro Sky.
Many VCU students notice the same two comic book characters around campus all the time, Thor and Wolverine. Thor is actually a VCU maintenance worker, he has long blonde hair and is absolutely jacked hence the nickname Thor. This guy is a replica of Thor. The guy who looks like Wolverine isn’t as close because he kinda small but he makes up for it In appearance. He’s got the hair, sideburns, and always is wearing at least one clothing article made of denim.
Well anyway, I saw Wolverine’s doppelgänger on campus smoking a cigarette and it got me thinking about the real Wolverine. Stan Lee’s Marvel Comics character Wolverine would probably be a Marlboro Sky user.
Originally his mutant powers were that he had animal sharp senses, three bone claws in each hand, and regenerative healing capabilities. At some point he ends up getting kidnapped by the Canadian Government’s top secret genetic research project called Weapon X. There his skeletal structure and bone claws are bonded with adamantium, a fictional metal alloy in the Marvel Comics Universe.
I believe that Wolverine’s upgrade can be related to an electronic cigarette’s upgrade. Also wolverine is considered quite the rebel himself, he rides a motorcycle, reluctant to join a team at first(trust issues), and among other mutants he is in a class of his own.
(Twentieth Century Fox, 2009)
He will have his own feature film this summer staring Hugh Jackman so there’s a chance for some possible product placement, you never know.
I was walking around campus and observing the world with a museum mentality when I noticed that one of the first things I notice/remember about people is the kind of footwear they have on. This inspired me to write about the footwear of Marlboro and Marlboro Sky.
Marlboro’s footwear (american classics)
Marlboro Sky’s footwear of choice would resemble that of Marty McFly’s in Steven Spielberg’s Back to the Future.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liI1E_ZZV5w
In the movie Marty McFly can travel through time with the help of Doc Brown and the Delorean. There is a scene where you see McFly putting on a pair of sneakers that are supposed to be from 2015. The shoes have an electronically powered lacing system that essentially ties your shoes for you. The Nike Air Mag is the official models name. I can picture Marlboro Sky being a fearless explorer of space and time. His futuristic electronic cigarette and self tying shoes could even possibly be co-branded together. In reality, Nike retrod the sneaker back in 2011 and sold them as a charity auction release. These retros however just appeared like the Nike Air Mags McFly wears in the film. They in no way have the futuristic lacing technology. Hopefully by 2015 Nike will be capable of such footwear technology.
If Marlboro Sky plays basketball he probably balls in a pair of APLs. 
(APL, 2010)
APL stands for Athletic Propulsion Labs and is a brand that notoriously had its sneakers banned by the NBA in 2010 because they are too technologically advanced. Studies have shown they can make the average athlete jump up to 3 inches higher and a professional basketball player can as much as 8 inches higher. These technologically advanced shoes would interest Marlboro Sky.
I was inspired by Jean Lurçat’s Wind and Blue Sky 
to portray marlboro and marlboro sky as sailing seamen.
Marlboro’s boating lifestyle
The opening verses lyrics to Styx’s come sail away sort of define the sailor marlboro’s life. “I’m sailing away,
Set an open course for the virgin sea,
‘Cause I’ve got to be free,
Free to face the life that’s ahead of me,
On board, I’m the captain, so climb aboard,
We’ll search for tomorrow on every shore,
And I’ll try, Oh Lord I’ll try, to carry on”
Marlboro Sky’s speed boat
Marlboro Sky’s submarine
Marlboro Sky could also live a lifestyle reminiscent to the of the character from Disney’s Treasure Planet. The explore outer space in a giant sailboat in search of a treasure. They are dangerous and rebellious and use really futuristic technology such as hover boards. They still have the right kind of edginess to fit with the brand.
(Disney, 2002)
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