Life, 1912-04-04 · page 46 of 80
Life — April 4, 1912 — page 46: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This satirical story by Harold E. Porter mocks the era's obsession with advertising as a cure-all for business problems. The cartoon shows a grotesque caricatured figure ("The Big Sticker") outside the White House, visually emphasizing the absurdity. The satire centers on a business advisor's ridiculous counsel: advertise constantly, everywhere, even after death via trust funds. Kelly, a bankruptcy-prone entrepreneur, takes this literally. The joke escalates when the advisor helps Kelly raise capital by placing ads in religious magazines—cynically exploiting moral publications for profit. Kelly's company is incorporated at inflated value despite his meager $5,000 investment, satirizing how easily gullible investors can be duped through hype. The underlying critique: aggressive advertising and speculative investing were creating bubbles of worthless companies, with shrewd promoters profiting while ordinary investors lost money. This reflects early 20th-century anxieties about commercialism's growing influence.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
eXchwalts “THE BIG STICKER” Kelly, the Advertising King I FIRST met Kelly when he had just patented an invention guar- anteed to open any car window in the world. It was an ingenious lit tle device weighing not over five pounds, and of a size readily carried in a suit case. With this article and the co-operation of any gentlemanly passenger, a lady of average intelli- ‘gence (and investigation proves that there are such) should be able to secure adequate ventilation while traveling. I met Kelly—or rather Kelly met in my office, where he came in rch of business advice. Having recently gone into bankruptey—three times previously I had been suddenly and unexpectedly petitioned into this te, but this time had been my safe BY HAROLD E, PORTER and sane fourth, and I had taken the plunge just after borrowing $10,000 on unendorsed paper—having recent- ly gone into bankruptcy, I said, I had withdrawn that ten thousand from my wife's keeping and opened an agen for business counsel. Then came Kelly. “ Advertise,” said 1. Advertise all the time. Keep your name before the public every hour of every day in the year. Newspapers, magazines, street cars, billboards—never stop as long as you live, and provide in your will for a trust fund so that your wife will keep up advertising after you are dead.” “Wife!” said Kelly. “I have no wife!” “Get one, then.” “And how, may I ask?” Advertiss “But I need capital for my busi- ness.” “Tocan get it for you.” “How?” “By advertising “Will you plan a campaign for me, Mr. Wiseman?” “T can do it with my eyes shut,” said I. That was exactly the way I did it It was easy enough to find the capi- tal. A few quarter pages in the reli- gious wecklies did that, so that in a very short time the Kelly Company incorporated for a million dol- Kelly put in all he had—five thousand. The shrewd investors of (Continued on page 729) C.-Y Te eee