Life, 1910-12-15 · page 34 of 44
Life — December 15, 1910 — page 34: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is **satirical advertising disguised as editorial content**. Life magazine ran a "contest" awarding a gold cup to whichever automobile manufacturer purchased the most advertising lines in the magazine from October 1910 to April 1911. The accompanying essay mockingly praises this "race" and "track" (Life magazine itself), using absurdist language to highlight the transparent commercialism: the track is "dustless" and "germless," admission costs only ten cents, and "every contestant wins" simply by advertising. The satirical point is obvious—Life is essentially auctioning the contest to the highest bidder while pretending to conduct a legitimate competition. The cartoon's chaotic "special car" piled with junk visually reinforces this chaos of competing manufacturers fighting for advertising prominence. The appended standings list shows actual line counts, confirming this was a real, if tongue-in-cheek, advertising competition within the magazine itself.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
LIFE’S SPECIAL CAR following contestants, in LIFE'S great auto race for a solid gold cup to the autor obile manufacturer having the greatest number of advertising lines in LIFE from October 1, 1910 to April 1, 1911. THE GREATEST TRACK IN THE WORLD By this time it ought to be perfectly obvious to every- body who has been watching this race, that it is being driven over the greatest track in the world. In the first place, there is no other track in the world capable of accommodating so many contestants at the same time. Then again, if this race were conducted on any other track in the world, it would be open to the inevitable criti- cism that the management was doing it for the gate receipts. The reason why that is not so with regard to this par- ticular track is that, regardless of any racing, the gate re- ceipts are going on all the time. This big race is not given because of any increase expected in the number of contest- ants, but because the spectators want to be amused by an occasional aside. We might throw lemon drops, but any kind of a contest is better than a lemon drop. The great beauty of this race is that every contestant wins. His mere presence on the track entitles him to lasting fame. And that track! Dustless. Germless. Did you ever see anything like it. Best company in the world. No overcrowding. No reserved views. Uniform price of ten cents for all. No accidents. No telescopes. Tire troubles unknown. Smokeless. Weather proof. It’s never too late to enter. tatoes fore a people, thing. caniosi Fifth of bei never tle con 1 | tary, t million parven least a HOW THE CONTESTANTS STAND: own Locomobile................ Packard.... Rambler.... McFarlan. Oldsmobile. .. Overland... Baker Electric. Chalmers...... ‘* Columbia. Franklin. Maxwell Briscoe... Stearns. Thomas Flyer...... Peerless. . Haynes. Marmon Premier. Rauch & Lang Electric Stevens-Duryea Waverley Electric. . Kelly Motor Truck. . Abbott Motor.. Anderson...... Cunningham Hupmobile... Hupp Yeats...... Stoddard Dayton Correja........... Brewster... Club Car......... Moon Motor. 3 Speedwell............ . 2,520 lines a deh 2,520 lines 2,100 lines 1,260 lines 1,268 lines 1,260 lines that h 260 lines Parke} 840 lines th 840 lines 840 lines 840 lines 840 lines 840 lines 840 lines 634 lines 448 lines of We 448 lines writin; 448 lines knight 448 lines The a 448 lines better 448 lines lm cation: 434 lines 420 lines 420 lines 420 lines 420 lines 420 lines 420 lines 420 lines 224 lines 224 lines 210 lines 210 lines 210 lines comicbooks.com