The Smile Coaxers, Run! Estelle, run! Those men are Zira smokers.
This advertisement personifies Zira cigarettes as society women, providing them with names and dialogue. The “Zira Girls” are described as “made for men,” alluding to God’s creation of Eve for Adam. The brand objectifies women and relates smoking with sex in order to sell cigarettes to men, even in 1911. In a newspaper ad in 1912, one marketer advertised Ziras with the following limerick: “Three little Zira girls near the ocean blue, one met a man of war, then there were two.” Zira ads often portrayed cigarettes with female heads, arms, feet, and accessories. The “Zira Girls” were advertised at the same time as the “Nebo Boys,” and both Zira and Nebo were owned by P. Lorillard Tobacco Company.
Cigarette People, Fashion, Female
