Life, 1921-04-28 · page 2 of 36
Life — April 28, 1921 — page 2: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a **commercial advertisement**, not political satire. Murad advertises Turkish cigarettes at 20¢ per box by posing rhetorical questions to consumers: Why is Murad the best-selling premium cigarette? Why do people pay more for it when cheaper alternatives exist? Why source expensive Turkish tobacco from the Black Sea region? The ad's answer: American smokers of "experience and judgment demand the best." The imagery shows two cigarette packages branded with "Sanargyros" (the distributor) and a figure in Turkish dress, emphasizing the product's foreign, premium origin. This reflects early 20th-century marketing that equated imported luxury goods with quality and sophistication.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
WHY is Murad the largest-selling high-grade ! ~ cigarette in the United States? Think it over. WHY do thousands of men every day pay 20¢ for a box of Murad when they can buy other cigarettes much cheaper? Think it over. WHY do we go 6000 miles to the provinces about the Black Sea for the finest, costliest varieties of Turkish tobacco, and pay several times the price of ordinary tobacco? Think it over. WHY do we make Murad 100% pure Turkish i instead of mixing the high-priced with cheaper ~ | ‘tobacco? as f : Think it over. ~~ | You ‘have the answer— i BECAUSE AMERICAN SMOKERS © f of EXPERIENCE and JUDGMENT 5 ; ‘DEMAND. THE BEST. i ‘We give ititolthem in Murad. : E e e uy Murad today and— j “Judge for. Yourself —!”" 7¢ comicbooks.com