Life — April 21, 1921 — page 35: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is a **cigarette advertisement**, not a political cartoon. It promotes Omar brand cigarettes using the marketing concept that aroma makes cigarettes desirable, just as aroma makes fine coffee appealing. The ad claims $12 million in Omar cigarette sales the previous year and emphasizes that "aroma makes a cigarette"—a sales pitch repeated for years. The page features stylized illustrations of cigarettes with smoke wisps and the Omar branding repeated at the bottom. **Modern context**: This reflects early 20th-century cigarette marketing before health warnings existed. The comparison to coffee normalizes smoking as a pleasant daily habit. The large sales figures served as social proof—suggesting Omar's popularity made it a desirable product. Such openly promotional cigarette advertising in mainstream magazines would be illegal in most countries today.