Judge — June 22, 1918 — page 36: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is a cigarette advertisement for Helmar Turkish Cigarettes, priced at thirteen cents. The ad features an Art Deco-style illustration of a fashionable woman in white clothing with a large black hat, holding a violin. A skeleton's head appears behind/above her shoulder, and she displays a somewhat knowing expression. The skeleton imagery likely plays on the period's ironic or darkly humorous advertising aesthetics. The woman's sophisticated pose with the violin suggests cultural refinement and elegance—qualities cigarette manufacturers marketed to appeal to upscale consumers, particularly women. The "Quality-Superb" tagline emphasizes premium positioning. This reflects early-20th-century advertising practices before health warnings, when cigarettes were marketed as sophisticated lifestyle products associated with cosmopolitan culture and refined taste.