Life, 1912-10-10 · page 48 of 48
Life — October 10, 1912 — page 48: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a **Pierce-Arrow automobile advertisement**, not political satire. The image shows two fashionably dressed women with a small dog standing beside a Pierce-Arrow motor car, with a chauffeur visible in the vehicle. The ad text emphasizes the car's modern design and mechanical superiority—notably that it has abandoned "the last traditions of horse-drawn vehicles wholly." The appeal is to affluent, stylish consumers (the well-dressed women suggest luxury and status). Published in October 1917, during World War I, this represents the automobile industry's marketing of cars as symbols of modernity and progress, contrasting the new motor age with outdated horse-and-buggy transportation. Pierce-Arrow was a prestigious American luxury brand based in Buffalo.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Tin its new typo of body, with the last traditions of horse-drawn vehicles wholly abandoned, the PIERCE? ARROW Car affains as a unit the ultimate degree of motor car efficiency which the perfection of its mechanical equipment has lo foreshadowed Che Pierce-Arrow (& Motor Car Co., Buffalo Gi ‘ Th astisttey! eoesestss ee October 10, 1917 \ comicbook eum om