Waiting to exhale

It's really too easy to play "hindsight is 20/20" and have a few cheap laughs at the expense of ads of bygone eras, especially when the subject is cigarettes and smoking.  This 1926 Chesterfield ad, however, is too politically incorrect by today's culture not to give it special note here:

There's more to this scene than just a romantic appeal to women, though.  Back then, showing women smoking in ads was frowned on as much as women smoking in public.  Instead, consumers of the '20s were given coy come-ons like this one:


Is she enthralled by the man -- or the cigarette?  Only her tobacconist knows for sure.

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