I remember last year stumbling on to an interesting matchbook. It was a promotional piece for a smoke shop, but the image used was a stock photo from a very nice retro ad. It featured a lady in formal wear, holding a cigarette out via an elongated plastic holder, with an expression on her face usually reserved for modeling kitchen appliances in the thirties. She was, and still is, my ideal woman.

I loaned that matchbook to a friend because I liked the art so much and thought it would make a great Waitangi Day image, the creation of which would be his job. So when it came time this year to make something at the last minute (which is, of course, the Waitangi way), thinking it lost, I searched in vain to find it on the internets. You don’t want to know some of the things I found while frantically searching for “hot thirties cigarette on woman action,” “smoking vixen,” and “too hot for matchbooks.”

But one of the things I did find was this sweet website related to all things smoking. Most of it is centered around vintage advertisements and product placement, but there are also some choice video and audio supplements. And even though I don’t smoke, I can’t help but admire the care and craft people used to put into ads, even if it was just for a pack of cigs. Some of the artwork on there is really exquisite.

Click here to visit lamarde. It’s all in Spanish, but everything is well categorized. Plus it’s mostly pictures, so just click around on stuff like the easily amused monkeys you are.