Life, 1919-08-07 · page 43 of 44
Life — August 7, 1919 — page 43: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a **tobacco advertisement**, not political satire. The page features a caricatured man in a cowboy hat smoking a pipe, promoting Prince Albert tobacco. The illustration uses exaggerated facial features typical of early 20th-century advertising—a prominent nose, sharp features, and a somewhat crude caricature style. The figure appears to be styled as a rugged, masculine "everyman" type designed to appeal to smokers. The ad copy employs colorful slang ("topjoy," "champeen-smokespeed-records") to emphasize the product's quality and pleasure. Key selling points include that the tobacco won't bite the tongue, comes in convenient packaging, and burns slowly for extended smoking. This represents pre-regulation tobacco marketing when health warnings didn't exist and smoking was openly promoted in mainstream publications as a positive lifestyle choice. The cowboy imagery suggests masculinity and frontier independence—common advertising appeals of the era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
onnas, 1 of gold Clever turn because it won't bite your tonguc AY, what a trick you'll turn for your tongue and taste and temper when you finally get down to bed-rock- smokes and let some of that topjoy Prince Albert float into your system! Just will put the quiz into your thinktank as to how much pipe or cigarette-rolling fun you've gone shy on—and, you'll work in a lot of double headers for quite a spell to get all-square! What’s the idea kidding yourself when you know what PA. will do for your smokespot; when you know what it is doing for men all over the civilized world! You can’t hit ahappier job than to stock a supply of Prince Albert, jam that joy’us jimmy pipe chuck-full and blaze away! Why, it’s like falling into feathers when you've been batting-it-out-on-a-board! Prince Albert just can’t help doing you a PRINGE ALBERT Copyright 1919 by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co, at any stage! Bite and parch are cut out by our patented process. Want you to know right here, and now, that Prince Albert will be as gentle with your tongue as a toy purr-kitty is with a stuffed mouse! You can rip champeen-smokespeed-records right up the back with P. A. for packing! You don’t need a percentage table to figure out what Prince Albert’s quality and flavor and fragrance will do for your happiness every time the clock ticks! You'll get the answer quick! And, now it’s your draw! Prince Albert is sold in toppy red bags, tidy red tins, handsome pound and half pound tin humidors, and, in that classy, practical pound crystal glass humidor with sponge moistener top that keeps the tobacco in such perfect condition! R. J. REYNOLDS TOBACCO COMPANY, Winston-Salem, N. C. CRIMP CUT the national LONG BURNING PIPE AND CIGARETTE TOBACCO joy smoke comicbooks.com