Judge — August 7, 1920 — page 1: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "Say It With Flowers" This Judge magazine cover from August 7, 1920 satirizes the phrase "say it with flowers"—a popular advertising slogan of the era promoting flowers as gifts to express emotions. The cartoon shows a man in formal attire holding both flowers and what appears to be a onion or garlic bulb, looking dismayed. A woman holds the onion, suggesting she's rejecting his romantic gesture. The joke plays on the slogan's promise: flowers are supposed to romantically "say" what words cannot, but here the man has apparently bungled the gesture by bringing something as unromantic as an onion instead—or alongside—the flowers. This mocks both the advertising trend and male courtship fumbling during the 1920s.