Most Influential Imaginary Icon

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - They influence everything from how we look and act to eat and speak and have even helped sway the course of history -- but they are not real.

 

And topping a list of "The 101 most influential people who never lived" in a book released Tuesday is the Marlboro Man -- a macho American cowboy who emerged in the 1950s and helped boost sales of Marlboro cigarettes.

 

"The figments of our imaginations, the creatures we push out of our minds into the real world are fully capable of pushing back with surprising consequences," Jeremy Salter, one of the U.S. book's three authors, told Reuters.

 

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Coming in at number two on the list is Big Brother of George Orwell's 1984, followed by King Arthur, who the authors say embodies for many the ideal monarch, and Santa Claus comes in at number four.