Life — May 28, 1925 — page 27: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is a cigarette advertisement disguised as humor. The cartoon depicts a golf scene where one player has sneezed while his partner was attempting an easy putt, causing the partner to miss. The "embarrassing moment" is the social awkwardness that results. The ad's solution is absurdly cynical: smoke a Deities cigarette to appear casually indifferent about ruining your partner's game. The humor lies in this implicit endorsement of nonchalance as a social smokescreen—literally and figuratively, since lighting a cigarette provides both distraction and literal smoke. This reflects 1920s advertising culture, when cigarette companies brazenly marketed to any demographic and occasion, and when smoking was positioned as a sophisticated response to social discomfort. Modern readers would recognize this as simultaneously promoting both cigarettes and emotional avoidance as solutions to interpersonal tension.