Life — May 25, 1916 — page 39: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is a **cigarette advertisement**, not political satire. It's a Rameses brand cigarette ad from an era (likely 1920s-30s based on styling) when such promotions appeared regularly in magazines like *Life*. The imagery features an Egyptian pharaoh figure (Rameses II, the historical reference) with large wings, holding a box of Rameses cigarettes. The headline "Nobody ever changes from Rameses" claims brand loyalty. The ad emphasizes product sizes: "In Tens Twenties and Week 6nd Tins" and "Rameses Large Size for Banquet Club and Dinner." The tagline describes Rameses as "THE ARISTOCRAT of CIGARETTES"—a common marketing strategy positioning cigarettes as luxury goods for the wealthy and sophisticated. By modern standards, this represents an era of unregulated tobacco advertising using grandiose imagery and claims that would be illegal today.