Life — February 21, 1918 — 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 (New Jersey). The ad uses health messaging common to early 20th-century patent medicine marketing. It claims constipation causes "lowered vitality" and winter illness, positioning Nujol as a "sound health investment" that provides "clockwork bowel regularity." The visual shows product bottles arranged on an upturned hand, emphasizing the product's reliability. A special note mentions a "kit size" for soldiers or sailors, suggesting this ad ran during or after wartime when such products were distributed to military personnel. This represents typical vintage advertising rhetoric blending medical pseudoscience with consumerism—practices now heavily regulated.