Judge, 1913-07-12 · page 24 of 24
Judge — July 12, 1913 — page 24: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a tobacco advertisement, not political satire. It depicts a sailor in white clothing sitting relaxed in a boat, promoting Velvet brand tobacco ("the smoothest tobacco"). The ad uses nautical imagery and dialect ("Ye ho! my hearties!") to appeal to working-class men. The marketing emphasizes the product's quality—Burley leaf aged for smoothness—and uses the sailor figure as an aspirational lifestyle image suggesting leisure and contentment. This represents early 20th-century advertising conventions normalizing tobacco consumption without health warnings. The "big red Velvet tin" serves as the visual anchor, making the product instantly recognizable to potential buyers.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Ye ho! my hearties! f you are at sea as to which is the best to- bacco, look for the big red Velvet tin. _ It will guide you into the port of true pipe pleasure. Velvet is made of choicest Burley leaf— aged to tempting mellowness. comicbooks.com