Marlboro is an American brand of cigarettes, currently owned and manufactured by Philip Morris USA (a branch of Altria) within the United States, and by Philip Morris International (now separate from Altria) outside the United States. Richmond, Virginia, is the location of the largest Marlboro cigarettes manufacturing plant. Marlboro is the global best-selling cigarette brand since 1972.

Philip Morris cigarette maker, opened a New York subsidiary in 1902 to sell many of its cigarette brands. The mark "Marlboro" was registered in the United States in 1908 although no cigarette was marketed under this name until 1923. In 1924, the brand was launched. They are first marketed as "America's luxury cigarette" and were mainly sold in hotels and resorts.

After scientists published a major study linking smoking to lung cancer in the 1950s, Philip Morris repositioned Marlboro as a men's cigarette in order to fit a market niche of men who were concerned about lung cancer. At the time, filtered cigarettes were considered safer than unfiltered cigarettes, but had been until that time only marketed to women. Men at the time indicated that while they would consider switching to a filtered cigarette, they were concerned about being seen smoking a cigarette marketed to women.

Marlboro's market share rose from less than one percent to the fourth best-selling brand. This convinced Philip Morris to drop the lineup of manly figures and stick with the cowboy, later known as the Marlboro Man. From 1963, the television advertisements used Elmer Bernstein's theme from The Magnificent Seven.

In the late 1960s, Marlboro "Longhorn 100's" were introduced. Although colour-coded with gold, they were full flavor cigarettes, not lights. In 1972, Marlboro became the best-selling brand of tobacco in the world.

In 2013, Philip Morris International introduced "Marlboro 2.0". The pack design was changed; the dark red was replaced with a lighter red, the "Marlboro" and Philip Morris logo became ribbed and transparent, and around 2017 a special "SmartSEAL" was introduced to keep the stored cigarettes fresh for a longer period of time. The Marlboro 2.0 packs are mainly available in Europe and some parts of Africa, Asiaand Latin America, but not in the United States, Canada, Australia (due to plain packaging), and New Zealand.

In 2015, Philip Morris announced they would introduce a "Firm Filter" to their Marlboro Red, Gold, Silver Blue, Ice Blast and White Menthol variants. Philip Morris managing director for the United Kingdom and Ireland, Martin Inkster, said that the Firm Filter technique was added to "offer quality you can feel, and it is a cleaner way to stub out your cigarette".

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