Life, 1907-04-18 · page 36 of 36
Life — April 18, 1907 — page 36: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a full-page advertisement, not satire. It promotes Pennsylvania Clincher Tires by romanticizing early automobile motoring as leisure activity. The image shows a well-dressed couple in an open-air motorcar driving beneath flowering trees on a scenic country road—depicting "motoring" as "the sovereign pastime of all." The ad emphasizes the tires' reliability ("resiliency," "phenomenal strength") to assure buyers that their cars won't suffer "tire difficulties" during recreational drives. The text uses flowery language ("bloom-scented," "open blue") to associate the product with pleasure and freedom. This reflects the early 1900s context when automobiles were novel luxuries for the wealthy, and driving for pleasure was becoming fashionable among the upper classes. The ad targets affluent readers of *Life* magazine.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
the bloom-scented, green- lined highways, under the open blue, with care flung to the dust in your wake, motoring 1s. the sovereign pastime of all if your car is equipped with PENNSYLVANIA CLINCHER TIRES Their highest attainable resiliency, phe- nomenal strength, superior construction and design are the qualities which carry you out and carry you back--with speed and safety--without ex- asperating tire difficulties to mar your utter enjoy- WRITE FOR OUR - TIRE BOOKLET Apel 18, 1907 comicbooks.com