Life — June 9, 1921 — page 38: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is a **cigarette advertisement** for Pall Mall brand cigarettes, not political satire or a cartoon. The image shows a black package of Pall Mall cigarettes with individual cigarettes displayed below it. The text promotes the "package of 100" as suitable "for the home — for the directors' table for the private office," positioning the product as appropriate for various social and professional settings. This reflects mid-20th-century advertising that normalized smoking in workplaces and homes. The page demonstrates how cigarettes were marketed as a prestige product across different social contexts, before widespread awareness of health risks led to restrictions on such advertising.