Life — June 21, 1929 — page 5: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Lucky Strike Cigarette Advertisement This is primarily a **cigarette advertisement**, not satire. The page promotes Lucky Strike cigarettes from The American Tobacco Company, dated 1929. The advertisement makes several now-notorious health claims: that Lucky Strike cigarettes are "less irritating than other cigarettes" and endorsed by "20,679 physicians." It prominently features the slogan "It's toasted" (their claimed unique process) and includes the infamous tagline "Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet"—targeting women concerned about weight. The large photograph shows a smiling man (likely an entertainer or public figure of the era, though not identified here). For modern readers: this exemplifies pre-regulation tobacco marketing that made unsubstantiated health claims and explicitly marketed cigarettes as weight-loss aids—practices now recognized as deceptive and prohibited.