Life — August 5, 1915 — page 2: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis This page is primarily an **advertisement for Omar Turkish Blend Cigarettes**, not political satire. The image depicts two people in exotic costume on a beach, apparently referencing orientalist aesthetics popular in early 20th-century American marketing. The quoted text—"As Wind along the Waste, / I know not Whither, / willy-nilly blowing"—appears to be a literary allusion, possibly from Edward FitzGerald's *Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam*, lending the product an air of sophistication and romance. The ad emphasizes the product's blend of Turkish tobacco with American cigarette quality, marketed at "20 for 15c." This represents typical early 1900s advertising strategy: exoticizing foreign goods while assuring American consumers of quality control. There is no apparent political commentary or satire on this page.