Life — November 22, 1917 — page 5: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis This is **not a political cartoon or satire**—it's a straightforward advertisement for Nujol, a laxative product made by Standard Oil Company. The ad promotes Nujol as "the healthiest habit in the world," claiming it helps users maintain regular bowel function "as clockwork." The pitch emphasizes that people can discontinue regular Nujol use while maintaining the habit itself, and that prolonged use requires smaller doses. The ad also includes a wartime appeal, offering to ship 75-cent packages to sailors and soldiers. By modern standards, this represents outdated medical marketing: promoting a laxative as a health-building habit would face significant regulatory scrutiny today. The casual normalization of daily laxative use reflects early-20th-century attitudes toward digestive health that have since been medically reconsidered.