Life — December 5, 1918 — page 66: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is primarily a **cigarette advertisement**, not editorial satire. The page uses an Egyptian artifact motif—showing what appears to be a hieroglyphic relief carving labeled "RAMESES"—to market Rameses brand cigarettes as "The Aristocrat of Cigarettes." The ad employs a common early 20th-century marketing strategy: associating a consumer product with ancient prestige and exotic glamour. The Egyptian imagery (Rameses was a pharaoh) suggests luxury and timelessness, reinforced by the slogan "Nobody ever changes from RAMESES"—implying the product's superior, established quality. The "Week End Tins" format offered cigarettes in decorative packaging suitable as gifts. This reflects a pre-regulation era when cigarette advertising appeared freely in mainstream publications without health warnings.