Life, 1910-11-03 · page 69 of 72
Life — November 3, 1910 — page 69: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is primarily a **product advertisement**, not political satire. The five caricatured men at top represent businessmen or professionals examining a document—likely illustrating the "modern man" who uses Gillette razors. The ad's rhetoric frames the safety razor as **progress and liberation**. It claims Gillette freed men from tedious grooming rituals (stropping, honing old open-blade razors), enabling the "three-minute shave" and allowing men to avoid being "Saturday night sitters" (presumably men too busy shaving to socialize on weekends). The phrase "The crab progresses backwards: man does not" positions the Gillette as part of inevitable human advancement—an early-20th-century marketing tactic equating consumer products with civilization itself. The ad targets younger men unfamiliar with older razor methods, emphasizing convenience and modernity as selling points.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
ith the Gillette you are always “next!”’ You are not a Saturday night sitter and there is no cloud over Sunday morning. The three-minute Gillette shave be- habit. comes an everyday Perhaps the younger men can scarcely appreciate the era of personal freedom that was ushered in by the Gillette. Many of them have never known anything else. The young man today doesn’t learn to use the old open-blade razor in any form. He neither strops nor hones—that prin- ciple belongs to the past. Who would return to the old ways ? The crab progresses backwards: man does not. GILLETTE SALES COMPANY, New York, Times Bldg. Chicago, Stock Exchange Bldg Canadian Office, 63 St. Alexander Street, Montreal Gillette Safety Razor, Ltd., London Buy a Gillette and shave with it. You will understand why it outsells all the safety shaving devices ten to one. The Gillette is a success be- cause it is practical. It will do what is claimed for it, and it will do it for you. Standard set with twelve double-edge blades, $5.00. Regular box of 12 blades, $1.00; carton of 6 blades, 50c. Write and we'll send you a pam- phlet—Dept. A. hinge &lille 48 West Second Street, Boston Eastern Office, Shanghai, China Factories: Boston, Montreal, Leicester, Berlin, Paris comicbooks.com