Life — June 3, 1920 — page 45: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is primarily a **Nunnally's candy advertisement**, not political satire. The page depicts a nostalgic scene of a young woman receiving chocolates at what appears to be a college commencement ceremony, set against a Southern antebellum backdrop (note the White House-like building). The ad's text romanticizes the "Old South" and the custom of giving sweets to young women at graduations. It frames Nunnally's as reviving this "charming" Southern tradition. The imagery—elegant dress, formal setting, architectural references—evokes pre-Civil War gentility. For modern readers: this represents how early 20th-century marketing exploited nostalgia for the antebellum South, glossing over its slavery-based economy. The advertisement sentimentalizes Southern "customs" without acknowledging the context of that era, using romanticized imagery to sell candy by associating the product with supposed refinement and tradition.