Egyptian Deities Cigarette Ad

This  1919 cigarette advertisement showcases 19th century Western trend of "Egyptomania," or fascination with Egyptian culture.  The brand, Egyptian Deities, was created in New York by the Greek businessman Sotirios Anargyros, likely aiming to capitalize this trend.

In this advertisement, Egyptian culture has been transformed into a Western ideal of itself for the purpose of selling  cigarettes.  In the back, a person styled after Egyptian hieroglyphs (in which all four limbs must be shown) carries in Egyptian Deities cigarettes on a boat. This person has dark skin and is wearing a headpiece modeled after those worn by ancient Egyptians; it can be inferred that they are intended to showcase an “authentic” Egyptian importing the cigarettes on a shipping boat. In the foreground, two  women watch on, and it is unclear whether they are meant to be Egyptian or Americans that have “embraced” the culture of Egypt.

The culture of Egypt that shown in these figures is, in a word, inauthentic. Firstly, the figure modeled on hieroglyphs invites Westerners to see Egypt as a country stuck in an “ancient” culture instead of a one immersed in the modern global economy, which allows them to justify colonialism and European conquests to the region. Further, the way the women are dressed is not how women in Egypt dressed at the time. Most women in Egypt at the time were Muslim, and were required by their religion to cover their hair and most of their body. Ultimately, this advertisement perpetuates Western idealization of Egyptian culture.