Life, 1911-01-05 · page 92 of 104
Life — January 5, 1911 — page 92: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes the intense competition among automobile manufacturers for advertising space in *Life* magazine itself. Rather than an actual racing competition, "Life's Great Auto Race" measures success by advertising volume—the number of printed lines each car company purchased. The elaborate trophy cup suggests this is a prestigious contest, but the joke is that winning depends entirely on spending: Locomobile "wins" with 2,940 lines, while smaller manufacturers like Moon Motor lag with only 210 lines. The note that contestants are "neck and neck" mockingly treats advertising expenditure as a sporting achievement. This is both self-promotion (showcasing *Life's* valuable advertising inventory) and satire of the booming early 1900s automobile industry's aggressive marketing wars. The alphabetical listing further emphasizes that commercial competition, not actual vehicle quality, determines the "winner."
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
SERESE Life’s Great Auto Race Open to all Automobile Advertisers ‘ Locomobile. . % ---2,940 lines Rambler. ; cece sees e+2,520 lines Baker Electric....... ue 1,680 lines Oldsmobile. Sinenes - 1,680 lines White... amasinne + +++1,680 lines Columbia. MARES - 1,260 lines Hupmobile. sruaimipateet 1,260 lines Hupp-Yeats sean a ceaonrrence 200) NDE McFarlan woe : . 1,260 lines Franklin. ae 1,260 lines Maxwell-Briscoe .... . 1,260 lines Overland. . A 1,260 lines Stearns. Avhemmaawnee L200 INES. Anderson. se eee s+ 1,064 lines Peerless... .. " caret 1,054 lines Haynes... eee ence 868 lines Abbott Motor Sas Sei REH 840 lines Chalmers... . ‘ 840 lines Cunningham. owas 840 lines Hudson Motor.. woimeaammece 840 lines Thomas. canon sae 840 lines Premier..... deees 672 lines Rauch & Lang....... 672 lines Kelly Motor....... . 658 lines Reo... 644 lines Stevens-Duryea .......... 644 lines Speedwell. . 2 ‘6 525 lines Aleos..esc505 ces : 448 lines Marmon. sve i 448 lines Waverley. . . eee 448 lines Carhart...... * 420 lines Corbin Motor... cosececeeseess 20 lines Stoddard-Dayton ......... < ss. 20 lines U.S. Motor.......- 420 lines Correja....... . 336 lines Aulass.cvsces eeu acorees seees 224 lines: National Motor.............- 224 lines Brewster......... : 210 lines Club Car. ‘ webs ae 210 lines Moon Motor. sain a 210 lines 41,899 lines As several of the contestants are neck and neck, we present them in alphabetical order. This is a reproduction, in full size, of the solid gold cup which will be presented to the winner of the contest. comicbooks.com