Life — March 31, 1921 — page 2: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis This is primarily a **Chesterfield Cigarettes advertisement** rather than political satire. The narrative poem describes a consumer's shopping journey: seeking a hair restorer, the character encounters a bald man selling oil stock in Liberty Bonds, then asks a clerk about cigarettes in a "fancy box." The clerk's response ("They Satisfy") leads to the advertiser's pitch. The two cartoon characters at right represent satisfied customers endorsing the product's "body" and mildness—Chesterfield's marketing claim that they "satisfy" despite being mild cigarettes. The satire is commercial, not political: it gently mocks consumer gullibility and marketing techniques of the 1920s-30s era, showing how advertising slogans ("They Satisfy") were used to sell cigarettes as sophisticated, satisfying products.