From the Girls and Children series (N64) promoting Virginia Brights Cigarettes for Allen & Ginter brand tobacco products 1886

This small card, promoting Virginia Brights cigarettes, was made by Allen & Ginter, likely using a combination of chromolithography and mass printing techniques. The surface is smooth, likely coated to withstand handling, and the image is brightly colored to catch the eye. But it is the image itself that holds the most meaning. The depiction of children, engaged in play, normalizes and even glamorizes a product that is now known to be harmful. Consider the social context: this card was designed for widespread distribution, tucked into cigarette packs, making it a small but powerful tool of consumer culture. The casual dissemination of these cards, leveraging images of childhood, speaks volumes about the norms of a bygone era and prompts us to consider the ethics of advertising and its impact on society. It challenges the idea of the artwork as a precious object, instead highlighting its role as a mass-produced artifact embedded in complex networks of labor, politics, and consumption.