Life, 1918-04-11 · page 2 of 44
Life — April 11, 1918 — page 2: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is primarily an advertisement for Omar cigarettes, not political satire or a cartoon. The ad uses a theatrical framing device—the headline "OMAR OMAR / between the second and third acts"—to position cigarette smoking as an intermission activity during dramatic entertainment, likely a stage play. The advertisement emphasizes the product's "aroma," claiming Omar cigarettes blend 13 Turkish and 6 domestic tobaccos through a special copper cylinder process. The visual elements show silhouetted figures in formal dress at what appears to be a theater lobby or social gathering. The copywriting strategy appeals to theater-goers by suggesting Omar cigarettes enhance dramatic tension during plot developments. This reflects early-20th-century advertising conventions associating cigarettes with sophistication and leisure.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
-between the second and third acts —when the plot’s in a knot—and you've gone outside to think it over— and you meet Gray—and you puzzle over what's going to happen next— and you light up—and_a cigarette’s aroma tastes the sweetes' Try Omar Aroma OmarOmar The very name is redolent with aroma For Omar is the aromatic blend of 13 kinds of rich Turkish and 6 of ripe domestic tobaccos —which make the perfect Turkish blend. These aromatic tobaccos, mixed in a sterilizing cylinder of burnished copper through which white clouds of superheated steam are forced, blend into one perfect Omararoma; then rightly graduated cooling seals in the perfect aroma. And there Omar aroma is sure to stay until —some time when a cigarette is sure to taste the sweetest—you try Omar—perhaps be- tween the second and third acts or some other time when keen good taste insists that only Omararomacan make acigarette taste sweetest. Aroma makes a cigarette They’ve told you that for years MAP CIGARETTES Guaranteed by Asuna