Embarassing Moments: Financial Ruin

I continue to be on "Wall Street Crash" watch while reading the New Yorker. By late 1929 I've seen a ton of advertisements which ENCOURAGE people to invest heavily in the market, but this one from September 14, 1929 -- just a month before the crash happened -- is truly, truly ominous.


I wonder: were financial experts at the time warning of a crash, and was this advertisement a reflection of that? It seems like an awfully big coincidence.

Set the Lady on Fire

Just when I'd thought the Murad folks had exhausted their list of "embarrassing moments," they present a new one.


Jeez, has anybody actually DONE this? And if they did, was it helpful to respond by standing there and smoking a cigarette? Why not throw the lighted cigarette at her as well?

Emotional Moments in the Life of a Flapper: Vehicular Homicide

There are many lessons we can learn by looking at the past, but I wouldn't recommend studying the Murad cigarette advertisements from The New Yorker. Here's their advice from the May 19, 1928 issue:

When you have unexpectedly run over a traffic cop, don't wait for him to get up and bawl you out, but...Offer him a MURAD.

Now we know why flappers were so unpopular with authority figures.

Murad Cigarettes

In between the more well-known cigarette ads (Lucky Strike, Chesterfield, and...errr, "Spud"), the 1928 New Yorker reader will constantly come across this campaign by Murad:

Emotional Moments in the Life of a Flapper

When your father comes in suddenly after you have come home from a dance, and finds you in a tight clutch with a young man, just...Offer Dad a Murad.

These advertisements are all short, punchy stories about people who commit faux pas and then -- to show their coolness and to perhaps delay a punch in the nose -- light a Murad. This one (from May 5, 1928) is the first I've seen specifically targeting "flappers" in a "tight clutch," however. Illustrated by a fish, no less.