Life, 1912-12-05 · page 19 of 116
Life — December 5, 1912 — page 19: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a **tire company advertisement**, not satire or political commentary. The page promotes Kelly-Springfield Automobile Tires through a straightforward commercial argument. The central image shows a woman sitting inside a large tire, likely meant to suggest the tire's quality and durability as a reliable "seat" for automobile travel. The accompanying photograph depicts an early 1920s automobile and street scene, establishing contemporary context. The ad's logic is practical: a car's reliability depends primarily on tire quality, just as "a soldier's efficiency depends more on his feet than on his marksmanship." Kelly-Springfield claims seventeen years of manufacturing experience and superior mileage performance compared to competitors. The extensive list of branch offices and distributors demonstrates the company's national reach. This is corporate advertising using a combination of visual appeal (the woman in the tire) and rational argument about product superiority—typical marketing strategy for the era.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Kelly-Springfield Tire Company 20 Youy Sts New Yr oT ly V, Put a poor tire on a good eve ji - automobile and you get— Philadelphia : ee a poor automobile. Son Francis : ity S : The serviceability of a motor car is meas- Los Angeles ; Z . Cleveland : ured more than anything else by the ser- Baltimore \ as -_ f 3 . . ee viceability of its tire equipment—just as a pizon O: ) . soldier's efficiency depends more on his feet uffalo . y Boss Rubber Co, than on his marksmanship. Denver, Colo. Todd Rubber Co. 5 ' —_——e ay ap: New Haven, Conn, \ , Kelly-Springfield Automobile Tires have Southern Hdwe. & ff, | P . Woodstock Conktd. q behind them seventeen years of rubber tire & 2 ¢ making experience. What these seventeen le, Fla. : @ years stand for is shown pretty clearly in Rubber N j . . Works, Augusta and . ; the fact that the average mileage given by Savannah, Ga. \ - + - C.D. Franke & Co, : Kelly-Springfield Tires exceeds by a thou- Charleston, S.C. . . Bering Tire & sand or two the average mileage given by Rubber Co. Houston, Texas The Hearn Tire & mis : Re eo as Giilb ‘ And tire mileage means car mileage. elly-Springfield Automobile Tires Kelly-Springfield Tire Company, 20 Vesey Street, New York tires of other makes. Bs comicbooks.com