Life, 1929-05-17 · page 41 of 52
Life — May 17, 1929 — page 41: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a **cigarette advertisement**, not satire—it's a genuine 1929 Lucky Strike ad featuring actor DeWolf Hopper. The page promotes cigarettes as a **diet aid**. The pitch: smoke Lucky Strikes instead of eating sweets to stay fit and trim. This reflects 1920s-30s marketing that positioned smoking as healthful and appetite-suppressing. Key claims made: - Toasting removes impurities; "20,679 physicians" endorse them as less irritating - No throat irritation or cough - A healthy alternative to fattening snacks - The brand showed explosive sales growth in 1928 **Why it's shocking today**: This represents pre-regulation tobacco advertising that made explicit health and diet claims. Modern readers will recognize these as objectively false health claims that would be illegal under current FDA rules. The page exemplifies how cigarettes were openly marketed as beneficial to fitness and wellbeing before the surgeon general's warnings (1964) and advertising restrictions.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Life 39 ‘I Light a Lucky’ Ligh DEWOLF HOPPER Veteran Star of the Stage “Physical fitness is as important to the actor as to athletes. My exercises and diet require constant attention. One lesson I’ve learned— whenever I crave between-meal tid-bits, I light a Lucky instead. Their toasted flavor is most appetizing, yet I smoke all I please without interfering with a healthful diet.” DEWOLF HOPPER modern common sense way—reach for a Lucky instead of a fattening sweet. Everyoneisdoingit—menkeep healthy and fit, women retain a trim figure. Lucky Strike, the finest tobaccos, skilfully blended, then toasted to develop a flavor which is a delightful al- ternative for that craving for fattening sweets. Toasting frees Lucky Strike from impurities. 20,679 physicians recognize this when they say Luckies are less irritating than other cigarettes. That’s why folks say: “It’s good to smoke Luckies.” _ Authorities attribute the enormous ——~*increase in Cigarette smoking to the improvement in the process of Cigarette manufacture by the application of heat. It is true that during the year 1928 Lucky Strike Cigarettes showed a greater increase than all other Cigarettes combined. This confirms in no uncertain terms the public’s confidence in the superiority of Lucky Strike, “It’s toasted” No Throat Irritation-No Cough. Coast to coast radio hook-up every Saturday night through the National Broadcasting Company’s network. The Lucky Strike Dance Orchestra in "The Tunes that made Broadway, Broadway.” comicbooks.com