The television industry just might owe a bit of its success to the tobacco industry. Cigarette producers were one of the earliest and most consistent advertisers on TV. Big tobacco had large pools of money and were able to take a chance on the new medium of television when it first debuted in the 1940's.

At a time when many sponsors were financially unable to buy advertising spots or unwilling to try TV ads, tobacco companies found opportunities to attach strings to their endorsements. Many shows were required to feature characters smoking during the shows. Stars were expected to use cigarettes and show their enthusiasm for the products. Popular shows such as I Love Lucy showed Lucy happily fetching a smoke for husband and exclaiming, "You see how easy it is to keep your man happy?!"

After television gained popularity and many consumers began to question the health of cigarettes, the products were banned from the air waves. For a more in depth look at this piece of television history, click here.

There have been many a Marlboro man to grace magazine pages over the years of the wildly successful Phillip Morris advertising campaign. The famed Marlboro Man campaign is aimed to represent American manly virility at its best and the various men used have indeed been magnificent specimens of manhood. Rugged, handsome and mysterious. These men appear to have life by the horns as they puff away on a Marlboro cigarette. But what became of those men? Did they go on to live happy, healthy lives?

For two of them that answer is no. They died of lung cancer. Wayne McClaren, a fixture for the campaign in 1976, died of lung cancer in 1992. After his diagnosis he worked diligently to promote an anti-smoking campaign. The second model to die was David McClean in 1995. Currently his surviving family is suing Phillip Morris. They claim that in order to successfully shoot the ads he had to sometimes smoke upwards of five packs per day. This is an unfortunate and ironic end for these men, the image they worked so hard to help create eventually brought about their demise.