Gene Boyle of Moab has never seen a controversial anti-smoking advertisement in which he appears but is reaping some benefits from the French commercial.
"You have to start somewhere," he said this week. "It might as well be France. Obviously, the American market hasn't caught on to me."The anti-smoking TV spot, which has been challenged in French court by the makers of Marlboro cigarettes, has led to a new role for Boyle in a series of commercials for a French aftershave. It will include outdoor scenes filmed in Utah.
In the anti-smoking advertisement, Boyle portrays an American cowboy reminiscent of the Marlboro man. He rides horses and corrals cattle, but when his fellow cowboys gather round the campfire for an evening smoke, he says into the camera: "Smoking - that's not my style."