Life, 1916-05-25 · page 40 of 40
Life — May 25, 1916 — page 40: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a **cigarette advertisement**, not satire. The page features a formal portrait photograph of an unidentified man in business attire, presented as evidence that successful, intelligent men prefer Fatima cigarettes. The ad's central claim—that cigarettes are "the mildest form of smoking" and that Fatimas are "sensible" because they lack "heavy or 'heady' after-feeling"—represents early 20th-century marketing tactics that exploited the then-widespread belief that cigarettes were safer than other tobacco products. For modern readers, this starkly illustrates how tobacco companies once marketed cigarettes as health-conscious choices for serious professionals, a claim now recognized as deliberately deceptive.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
ORE and more men who win success by clear thinking are choosing cigarettes as their favorite smoke. Because cigarettes are the mildest form of smoking. . This growing popularity of cigar- ettes among keen, substantial men is particularly noticeable in the case of Fatimas. The reason seems to be that men find Fatimas so truly a SENSIBLE cigarette—so free from any heavy or “heady” after-feeling even when smoked more freely than usual. comicbooks.com