Life, 1910-07-07 · page 17 of 48
Life — July 7, 1910 — page 17: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a satirical fake advertisement mocking both breakfast cereal marketing and social hypocrisy of the early 1900s. The joke hinges on double meaning: "wild oats" (a plant) versus the idiom "sowing wild oats" (youthful excess/debauchery). The ad sarcastically claims the product is grown in the "Tenderloin"—a notorious red-light district—and recommends it for "infants" and "infidels," with promises of "bright eye and elastic step of youth." References to "discreet Physicians," "plain wrapper" mailing, and "strictly confidential" correspondence all mimic dubious patent medicine advertising of the era. The cartoon shows two figures (likely a woman and older man) examining the box, suggesting illicit activity masked by breakfast-food respectability. The satire targets both the false morality of the period and the deceptive advertising practices that pervaded early 1900s media, particularly around patent medicines and dubious remedies.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE NEW BREAK- FAST FOOD SERVE REQUIRES AS IS NO COOKING |e 4 etl B} on wri cuanpacne || INTERNATIONAL WILD OATS CO, |] ] RATTLE QUICK, MICH.8 PITTSBURG. PA. A BLEND of the European article and the best American wild- oats, grown in the choicest section of the Tenderloin, warranted to tempt the most jaded appetite.’ Imparts the bright eye and elastic step of youth. Strengthening, too. Recommended by all discreet Physicians. Guaranteed under poor feed and drugs act of April I, 1906: Cereal No. 23,846. Ring 5. ~ Invaluable for infants (either first or second childhood) and infidels. Put up in neat | lb. boxes and mailed in plain wrapper. All correspondence regarded as strictly confidential. SAMPLE ORDER INTERNATIONAL WILD OATS CO. Gents :—Please send four more cases of wild oats in plain wrapper. | have sought it for years and now care for nothing else. A yC k. comicbooks.com