Life, 1920-03-04 · page 78 of 78
Life — March 4, 1920 — page 78: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is primarily a **tobacco advertisement** for Velvet pipe tobacco, disguised as editorial content through a political connection. The page features **Marshal Ferdinand Foch**, the French military commander who coordinated Allied forces in World War I. The left column discusses his military strategy and leadership during the war's critical moments. However, the advertisement hijacks this credible historical figure through a pun: "Velvet Joe's methods" compares Foch's strategic success to the benefits of smoking Velvet tobacco. The satirical angle—typical of LIFE magazine's advertising parodies—lies in the absurd equation: Foch won the war through careful deliberation → men should smoke Velvet to think carefully → therefore, Velvet helped win WWI. The fake soldier's advice ("Keepin' cool under fire shows a good soldier—an' a good tobacco") mocks patriotic messaging by conflating military virtue with consumer products. This represents early 20th-century advertising's shameless appropriation of wartime heroism to sell cigarettes to veterans.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
affairs iby. say Marshal Focit, answering his tion, “How, then, did 1 win the wart” }a* 4\u zaney The figurative expression will become | chak MN historic. Axes hence men will qu the effy) when talking about the great war ; *| discussing the strategy of "Jeivilization. In the dark _ | troubles the Marshal of Fra ¥ pipes to when the British had their backs the wall at Kemmel Hill and last reserve could save the Hasbrouck- Ypres railway; when the Americans nd Mo au-Thierry barred 5) man had a time, and the con ui K rule t defeat At the of the first battle o! 3 Marsha Foch won. by excelle forced a part of the line, and by a fu: rious and well Velvet Joe’s methods | pr me command at the time, o ha \ For years Velvet Joe has been giving advice like this: charge of the Yser front a doubt, in inti- | Keepin’ cool under fire shows a good soldier—an’ yy more| Alte Beauvais on | eve a good tobacco. That's Velvet. All ‘ e Americans ready for siz He who hesitates is lost. But he who deliberates over a smoke of Velvet ain't—not by a long shot. When yo're facin’ a stiff problem, bite hard on yo’ pipe stem an’ go at it again. The man who smokes Velvet can light his pipe and give all his time to his problems. Velvet is made of the heart leaves of Kentucky Burley, the finest pipe tobacco that grows. Two years ageing in wooden hogsheads mellows it. The result is a slow burning, fragrant, “biteless” smoke. One tin of Velvet will show you why smokers name it “America’s Smoothest Tobacco.” blr Psbaceo, Amemas smoothest tobacco