Life — May 1, 1919 — page 2: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is a **cigarette advertisement**, not political satire. It appears in *Life* magazine and promotes "Murad Turkish Cigarettes." The image depicts three elaborately costumed women in exotic, orientalist styling—turbans, jewelry, and ornate clothing suggesting a vague "Turkish" or Middle Eastern aesthetic. The accompanying text box claims these cigarettes are "made especially for the discriminating and experienced smoker of high grade Turkish cigarettes" and promises "a genuine exceptional" product. This represents **orientalist marketing** common in early 20th-century American advertising, which used romanticized, stereotypical imagery of non-Western cultures to sell luxury goods. The exotic costumes and styling were meant to suggest sophistication and worldliness to consumers.