Life — May 15, 1913 — page 3: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis This is **not a cartoon or satire**—it's a straightforward automobile advertisement for the Locomotile, published in *Life* magazine (page 959). The ad features a photograph of an early 1900s motorcar with several well-dressed passengers beside a scenic waterside location. The marketing emphasizes three selling points: "Safest," "Easiest Riding," and highlights the "Best Electric Motor Starter" and "Costliest Electric Lighting System." The Locomobile Company of America, based in Bridgeport, Connecticut, positioned this vehicle as a premium, technologically advanced automobile. The affluent passengers and picturesque setting were typical advertising strategies to associate the product with leisure, status, and modernity during the early automotive era.