Life, 1929-06-28 · page 34 of 37
Life — June 28, 1929 — page 34: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This advertisement uses humor to sell Murad cigarettes. The cartoon depicts a mortifying social scenario: a man has tossed a lit firecracker that lands in his mother-in-law's lap, causing her distress (shown by her shocked expression and the explosive impact). The joke's advice is to remain calm and cool in this awkward situation—specifically by lighting a cigarette. The humor relies on the mother-in-law being a stock figure of comedy (the difficult, fault-finding relative), and the absurdity of treating a genuinely dangerous accident with indifference. By smoking Murad, the implication goes, one projects such nonchalant sophistication that even disaster becomes manageable. This plays on mid-20th century advertising's association of cigarettes with composure and masculine aplomb—a marketing angle that would be unthinkable today.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
EMBARRASSING MOMENTS When you toss a lighted firecracker and it lands in your mother-in-law’s lap... be nonchalant . . . Light a MURAD. OP Lorillard Co.. Est., 1760 LiFE’s Theatre Ticket Service 598 Madison Ave., New York City PURCHASE ORDER (Instructions for using on Page 24) Dear Live: 1 want tickets for the following shows: (Name of show) (No. Seats) (Date) (- IIternates) Check for $ Name Address enclosed From The New Books \t nine my little doings are begun T thumb the thumbly files and no the day, And write on some small doing tha: is done— “O KS —The Lady is Cold by E. B. W. My father was the master of th “Minnie J. Cohen,” a six-masted brigan tine schooner, or sloop, which was en gaged in the copra trade between th: islands of the South Seas and Aus tralia, or “Russia” as it was called in those days. Copra-trading was a rather dangerous business, for as everyone knows the copra is deadly poisonous, and one of my earliest childhood memories is of lying in my litle bunk and listening to these vicious copras in the hold. In ex- change for copras we used to bring back oakum, which was shipped to the United States in large quantities to be used in the manufacture of sea stories. —Salt Water Taffy by Corey Ford. Biarritz rises languidly about noon, pulls on a bathing suit and a kimono, and drives down to the beach. After a hasty dip one drives slowly back, exchanging remarks ‘with acquaint- ances in equal dishabille in other cars, and dresses for lunch. Before lunch one takes a cocktail at La Chaumiere. —From Deauville to Monte Carlo by Basil Woon. It is a delicate question in psychol- ogy today whether our young people find more pleasure in their strutting sins than their elders find in denounc- ing them. Life, from the point of view of morals, seems to be divided into two periods; in the first we in- dulge, in the second we preach; passion yields to caution, and the great cur- rents of desire become the winds of speech; the tempo of life slackens, the mood changes, and senility finds it hard to forgive youth. “Truth” in these matters is a function of age and “immorality” is other people's morals. —Mansions of Philosophy by Will Durant. comicbooks.com