Life, 1928-03-29 · page 27 of 34
Life — March 29, 1928 — page 27: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a **cigar advertisement**, not political satire. The "joke" targets changing social attitudes about excess and masculinity between generations. The cartoon depicts a corpulent man smoking—representing the "beefsteak breakfast age" when Henry VIII-style multi-course feasting was fashionable. The ad contrasts this outdated indulgence with 1927 modernity: men now "play golf and ride horses to keep reasonably lean and fit." The satirical point: contemporary gentlemen are sophisticated enough to choose *refined* pleasures (a mild, flavorful cigar) over crude gluttony. Haddon Hall cigars suit the modern man's restrained lifestyle—they're "flavorful as black coffee" and "mild as a morning in Spring," not heavy or excessive. The text mocks the overstuffed past while celebrating 1920s leisure-class values: fitness, golf, refined taste. It's marketing through social commentary on generational change and masculine self-improvement.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
f king cigars that n the beefsteak cAre you sm were favorites breakfast age? Now and then you still see one—a vast and prideful paunch—relic of those days, / when beefsteak breakfasts, Henry VIII, lunches, and seventeen-course dinners) were the mode. {} But men who eat in the custom of 1927, who play golf and ride horses to) keep reasonably lean and fit, are just a up-to-date in choosing their cigars. , Haddon Hall is their kind of cigar, Flavorful as black coffee after dinner, yet mild as a morning in Spring. Satisfying, soothing—to just the right degree. A Haddon Hall is like your dinner tonight compared to the truckload of food con- sumed by the human commissary above back in the overstuffed go's. Most every leading tobacconist ’round and about New York has Haddon Hall cigars in all shapes and sizes from the Short Café Noir to the Corona de Luxe. 10c to 3§c according to size. D. Emil Klein, 438 East gtst St., New York. Phone Lenox 5148. Haddon Hall 0 vr (7gars ~_9 comicbooks.com