I have emphysema just like Osiris and Thoth.

“The Utmost in Cigarettes” is the slogan that was used in this post-WWI ad for the imported cigarette brand Egyptian Deities. Priced at 30 cents a pack, the brand tried to sell itself as a continental, sophisticated accoutrement as much as a pack of smokes.

The ad copy promises that “people of culture and refinement invariably prefer Deities to any other cigarette.” But the early century rage of Egyptian and Turkish cigarettes did not last forever. An excerpt from Relli Shechter’s article, “Selling Luxury: The Rise of the Egyptian Cigarette and the Transformation of the Egyptian Tobacco Market, 1850-1914”:

“Tastes in Europe and the United States shifted away from Turkish tobacco and Egyptian cigarettes towards Virginia tobacco during and after the First World War. What remained of the Greek-run tobacco industry in Egypt was nationalized after the Egyptian Revolution of 1952. Egyptian-made cigarettes were thereafter sold only domestically, and became known for their poor quality (and low price).”

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