Life, 1918-08-15 · page 3 of 36
Life — August 15, 1918 — page 3: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a **cigarette advertisement**, not satire or political commentary. The page uses a patriotic appeal during what appears to be a wartime period (likely WWI or WWII, based on the reference to "the big job for all of us" and donation language mentioning the Red Cross). The ad cleverly combines two messages: promoting cornbread consumption as a wheat-saving measure (framed as civic duty) alongside selling Lucky Strike cigarettes. The absurd juxtaposition—linking tobacco consumption to patriotic food rationing—would seem ridiculous today, but reflects how advertisements once blended commercial products with wartime public-service messaging to appear socially responsible while actually promoting smoking. The tagline "It's toasted" was Lucky Strike's standard marketing claim.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
AT more corn bread. You know that’s the surest, most satisfactory way of saving wheat—the big job for all of us. Corn bread is simply delicious—made right in the good old Southern way. Cooking transforms corn meal into a delightful food. And cooking makes tobacco taste much more delicious. Burley tobacco—toasted—is used for Lucky Strike Cigarette. It’s toasted.