Marlin is either #1 or #2 in the US, for number of rifles sold.
They've been making lever guns since 1881 (with some twists and turns in between). They recently donated a commemorative rifle to NRA-ILA. It's the 30,000,000th Marlin lever gun. 30 million sounds like a lot, even if it took 127 years.
Now consider that General Motors sold over 9 million cars, just in 2005.
What's the profit on a rifle? What about a car?
Anheuser-Busch sells beer, which is a lot cheaper than cars, and they advertise a lot. But they sold 121,900,000 barrels of beer just in 2005.
Marlin can't justify prime time advertising. It's far too expensive. Smaller-volume manufacturers, even less so.