1. A brand of
cigarette originating in the U.S., marketed heavily through identification with idealized, ruggedly-individualistic cowboys inhabiting the wide-open spaces of the American West. 2. The only brand of
cigarette I was able to buy in European "tabacs" during a summer as a college exchange student.
1. Me: "Do you like this denim jacket lined with thick fuzzy
sheep'
s wool that I picked up at a thrift store?" Honest friend: "You look
like the Marlboro man." Me: "Cool." 2. Me: (entering tobacco shop in Vienna) "Do you have Camel Lights?" Shop clerk: (eyeing my shorts, white sneakers, and baseball
cap) "American?" (lays pack of Marlboro Reds on counter). Me: (waving arms, attempting to "draw", then pantomime, a camel, now speaking more loudly): "CAMEL. CAM--" (softly again, as clerk becomes visibly tense) "Camel. Lights." Clerk: (shrugs, reaches for Marlboro Reds on counter). Me: "Wait. Okay. Thank you. DUNK-uh." (I give clerk
funny-looking bills,
hope it's enough, take cigarrettes, and walk quickly toward the door). Clerk: (with enthusiasm) "BITTE!"