Life, 1920-08-19 · page 39 of 40
Life — August 19, 1920 — page 39: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a **Chesterfield cigarettes advertisement** disguised as humorous narrative content—a common advertising technique in early 20th-century magazines. The "story" uses absurdist humor: a grumpy man, irritated by bad breakfast and a terrible-tasting cigarette, decides to quit smoking and fire his office boy. On the verge of committing violence against a policeman, he's distracted by the appealing aroma of another man's Chesterfield cigarette. He follows the stranger into a store, buys the same brand, and is so satisfied he keeps his job and the policeman lives. The joke is intentionally ridiculous—the advertisement claims Chesterfield cigarettes are so good they literally prevent murder. It's satire of overwrought advertising claims, though the actual purpose is to sell cigarettes by associating them with satisfaction and good taste. The two small cartoon illustrations reinforce the before/after: grouchy versus happy. This blurs editorial and advertising content, typical of Life magazine's era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
With acknowledgments to K. C. By “How I saved @ policemans life” ° EVEN THE eggs. WERE TIRED that morning. AND THE coffee. DION’T FOOL me one bit. BUT WHEN after breakfast. MY CIGARETTE tasted awful. IT WAS too much. AND A grouch started. AND WALKING to work. | SWORE off smoking. AND DECIDED to fire. MY OFFICE boy. BUT JUST before I decided. TO KILL a policeman. A MAN passed me. SMOKING A cigarette. AND SAY but the smoke. THAT DRIFTED back. DID SMELL good. AND | followed him. INTO A store. HE THREW down two dimes. AND SAID “The same.” AND SO did 1. AND SO I'm still smoking. AND STILL keep that. OFFICE Boy and I let that. HANDSOME POLICEMAN live, AND I'M going to boost. THAT MAN I followed FOR PRESIDENT or something. FOR REALLY those cigarettes, DO SATISFY. Jest a whiff of that spicy aroma of tine Turkish and Domestic tobaccos will make you hungry for this ‘‘satisfy’’ smoke. There are blends and blends, but none like this one, Chesterfield’s blend is a secret and it cannot be copied. comicbooks.com