Life, 1912-03-07 · page 37 of 60
Life — March 7, 1912 — page 37: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a **product advertisement**, not political satire. It promotes Kelly-Springfield automobile tires to early 20th-century readers. The ad features a woman sitting inside a large tire, illustrating the product. The testimonial claims one tire reached 14,873 miles—exceptional for the era when tire durability was a major consumer concern. The copy's rhetorical strategy is clever: it acknowledges that such mileage might seem like "luck," but argues this actually demonstrates "quality." The ad reframes luck as a byproduct of superior engineering, positioning Kelly-Springfield as reliably durable rather than gambling on chance. For modern readers: this reflects an era when tire longevity was genuinely unpredictable and heavily advertised as a competitive advantage. The gendered imagery (woman in tire) was typical early advertising but feels dated today. The emphasis on real-world testimony mirrors modern consumer reviews.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
A user of Kelly-Springfield Automobile Tires “T have a Kelly-Springfield writes: that has run 14,873 miles.” Pure luck, say you? Unquestionably —the element of luck enters into a record like this. But taking an average from all the testimony immediately at hand, we get 7,600 miles per tire. Higher by a thousand or two than the average tire’s average mileage. Call it luck if you like. We call it quality. Anyhow the mileage is there in Kelly-Springfield tires. And mile- age is what you’re buying. Buy your } tires for quality—and if they’re lucky tires as well, so much the better. Kelly-Springfield Tire Company, 20 Vesey St., New York BRANCH OFFICES IN New York Chicago Philadel Ses Angel ela Boss Rubber Co., Denver, Colo. Apri 8 Bu rece Daas Tex Todd Rubber Co New Have comicbooks.com