Life, 1920-07-29 · page 36 of 36
Life — July 29, 1920 — page 36: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a **cigarette advertisement**, not political satire. The page promotes Murad Turkish cigarettes, priced at 20¢. The ad uses a framing device: large tobacco leaves frame a landscape vista showing agricultural fields and a distant town, suggesting the product's origin in tobacco-growing regions (likely Turkey or the Middle East, given "Turkish" emphasis). The copy employs **aspirational marketing** common to early 20th-century advertising, claiming that smoking Murad signals "class" and "good form"—social respectability. The ad asserts Murad's superiority through purity ("100% Turkish") and cost ("necessarily costs more than 'ordinary' cigarettes"). The pitch appeals to vanity and social anxiety: smoking this brand supposedly requires no apology in any company. This reflects an era when cigarettes were marketed as status symbols rather than health products.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Nothing shows a man’s “class” more surel than the cigarette he smokes. MURAD marks the man of taste--the man who know You never have to apologize for MURAD. You a proud of MURAD in any company, on any occasic MURAD is not only Good, but it is Good Form Turkish of the purest and best yar MURAD is 100 ies grown and ly costs more than “ordinar cessarily ¢ Ther no other cigarette like MURAD. Judge for Yourself -