Life — October 23, 1913 — page 40: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is a cigarette advertisement from *Life* magazine (October 2, 1911). It features an illustration of an ornate Victorian or Edwardian-era mansion with half-timbered architecture, bare tree branches overhead, and a figure in period dress on the grounds. The ad's tagline compares British and American pricing: "A Shilling in London / A Quarter Here," meaning Pall Mall cigarettes cost one shilling in Britain but only a quarter (25 cents) in America—positioning the product as an affordable luxury import. The elaborate mansion imagery suggests sophistication and Old World elegance, marketing the cigarettes as refined and cosmopolitan. This was typical early-20th-century cigarette advertising strategy.