Life — November 15, 1917 — page 40: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is a **perfume advertisement**, not political satire or a cartoon. It promotes Rigaud's "Un Air Embaumé" fragrance from Paris, distributed in America by Geo. Borgfeldt & Co. The page features **Florence Walton**, a famous dancer of the 1910s-1920s era, as a celebrity endorser. Her image—dressed in Egyptian-style costume with the Sphinx behind her—creates an exotic, glamorous association for the product. The endorsement claims the perfume is "delicious and subtle" and appeals to people with "exquisite and esthetic taste." The advertisement emphasizes luxury: the fragrance is "used exclusively" by refined people, comes in 14-karat gold-plated boxes, and is "sold at the best shops in America." For modern readers, this reflects how early 20th-century luxury marketing used celebrity endorsements and appeals to exclusivity and taste—tactics still common today, though the specific reference to Walton is now obscure.