Life — January 18, 1929 — page 44: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is a **cigarette advertisement**, not political satire. It promotes Latima cigarettes by Liggett & Myers Tobacco Co. The image shows two hockey players in action, emphasizing speed and competition. The ad's wordplay plays on "a whale of a difference"—claiming that just a few inches (in hockey) or a few cents (in price) create significant quality differences. The tagline promises "a definite extra price for a definite extra tobacco-goodness," positioning Latima as a premium product worth the modest price increase. This reflects **early-to-mid 20th century advertising conventions**: using sports imagery to appeal to masculine consumers and justifying higher prices through claimed superior quality. The OCR text contains errors, but the core message is that Latima cigarettes offer better tobacco at a reasonable premium cost.