Life — January 20, 1916 — page 2: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Richmond Straight Cut Cigarettes Advertisement This is primarily a **cigarette advertisement**, not political satire. The page advertises Richmond Straight Cut Cigarettes, priced at fifteen cents. The ad uses nostalgic imagery comparing transportation evolution: "Self-Starters were Boots," "Horseless Carriages have given way to Gliding Palaces," suggesting progress and modernity. The central illustration depicts an old-fashioned carriage scene, evoking tradition and heritage. The marketing pitch emphasizes the product's Virginia tobacco as having an "appealing, old-time taste which has never been equalled in any other cigarette." The tagline "PREFERRED BY GENTLEMEN NOW AS THEN" explicitly markets these cigarettes as a timeless, refined choice for gentlemen—reflecting early 20th-century advertising strategies linking cigarettes to sophistication and masculine identity. This appears to be from an era when tobacco advertising in mainstream publications was entirely legal and common.