Judge — March 23, 1929 — page 36: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is a **cigarette advertisement**, not political satire. It features Mrs. Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte, identified as a prominent New York socialite, endorsing Lucky Strike cigarettes. The ad uses a common 1920s marketing strategy targeting women by linking smoking to slenderness—the tagline "Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet" positioned cigarettes as a weight-control alternative to candy. This advertisement exemplifies how tobacco companies exploited social anxieties about women's appearance and borrowed celebrity endorsements to market their products. The "toasted" claim and "No Throat Irritation" messaging were typical health assertions made before cigarette dangers were widely acknowledged. The copyright date is 1928.