Life — December 16, 1915 — page 44: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is a **cigarette advertisement**, not political satire. It promotes Richmond Straight Cut cigarettes as a Christmas gift, priced at fifteen cents. The illustration depicts a festive Victorian-era Christmas scene with well-dressed gentlemen and families enjoying the holiday around a decorated tree and gifts—establishing the product as a luxury item suitable for gift-giving to "gentlemen." The ad emphasizes the cigarettes' "bright" Virginia tobacco and claims superior quality compared to competitors. Distribution details and pricing ($0.40 for 50, $0.75 for 100) suggest mail-order availability. The historical interest lies in the **casual promotion of cigarettes as respectable holiday gifts** to modern readers—reflecting early 20th-century attitudes before tobacco's health risks became widely acknowledged. This represents marketing from an era when such advertising was unrestricted in American publications.