Life, 1903-08-13 · page 24 of 24
Life — August 13, 1903 — page 24: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a **Schlitz beer advertisement** disguised as editorial content in Life magazine. The "cartoon" depicts a doctor and patient in conversation, with the doctor enthusiastically endorsing Schlitz as pure and healthful. The satirical angle—which Life's readers would recognize—is that this mimics the format of legitimate medical advice while actually being paid advertising. The doctor's arguments reflect **late-19th-century pseudoscience**: beer is promoted as medicinal, containing beneficial "tonics" (hops) and "food" (barley), and as necessary hydration. He dismisses concerns about alcohol and billiousness by claiming Schlitz's purity and aging process prevent such problems. The elaborate decorative border with hops emphasizes the brewing heritage. This represents how companies exploited medical authority to market products before modern advertising regulations. The tagline "The Beer That Made Milwaukee Famous" references Milwaukee's actual prominence in American beer production.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
August 13, 1903, A Doctor’s Reasons Patient: ‘‘Why do you say Schlitz beer? Isn’t any sterilized—by Pasteur’s process—after it is sealed. I other beer as good?’’ know that beer treated in that way is pure.” Doctor: ‘*Perhaps; but I don’t know it. I do know Patient: ‘‘And is pure beer good for me?’’ that Schlitz beer is pure.” Doctor: ‘It is good for anybody The hops form Patient: “‘What do you mean by pure?”" a tonic; the barley a food. The trifle of alcohol is an Doctor: ‘I mean free from germs. Impurity means aid to digestion. And the custom of drinking beer sup- bacilli; and in a saccharine product like beer bacilli plies the body with fluid to wash out the waste. People multiply rapidly. Ido not recommend a beer that may who don’t drink beer seldom drink enough fluid of any contain them.’” kind. A great deal of ill-health is caused by the lack Patient: ‘‘How do you know that Schlitz beer of it.’’ is pure?’’ Patient: ‘*But doesn’t beer caure biliousness?”” Doctor: ‘I have seen it brewed. Cleanliness is car- Doctor: ‘Not Schlitz reer. Bitiousness is caused tied to extremes in th:t brewery, The beer is cooled in by ‘green’ beer—beer that is insufficiently aged. But pute glass rooms, in filtered air. The beer is then Schlitz beer is always aged for months before it is Itered. Yet, after all these precautions, every bottle is marketed.” sk for the brewery bottling. THE BEER THAT MADE MILWAUKEE FAMOUS comicbooks.com