Life — December 21, 1905 — page 21: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is a **Murad Cigarettes advertisement** disguised as editorial content in *Life* magazine. The ad uses a New Year's Eve holiday theme to market cigarettes by associating them with "old-time pleasures" and "tradition." The illustration shows masked revelers celebrating in City Hall Park, New York—evoking festive holiday merriment. The ad claims Murad cigarettes represent "accumulated traditions" of Old World cigarette-making, with tobacco selected and blended by "Allan Ramsay, government tobacco expert of Turkey for sixty years." The pitch: "10 for 15 Cents," with mail-order availability. For modern readers, this reveals how openly cigarettes were advertised in early 20th-century magazines, marketed through lifestyle and tradition rather than health warnings—practices now illegal in most countries.