Life, 1913-05-15 · page 31 of 52
Life — May 15, 1913 — page 31: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is **not a cartoon but a corporate advertisement** disguised as a public notice. Gordon's Dry Gin announces it will abandon its traditional square bottle for a new distinctive "Gordon bottle" design to combat counterfeit products flooding the American market. The satirical framing—presented as an acrostic spelling "GORDON" with ornamental capital letters—converts a business decision into mock-official language. The satire lies in the pompous tone: Gordon's presents trademark protection as a public service ("protection to the American public"), when it's actually commercial self-interest. The repeated claims about prosecuting imitators and the defensive explanations about continuing square-bottle distribution reveal anxiety about market counterfeits and brand dilution during the Prohibition era or early post-Prohibition period when spirits distribution was chaotic. The acrostic structure itself is the visual joke—dressing up a straightforward business notice in elaborate period typography to amuse *Life*'s sophisticated readers.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Notice of Change in Bottle a\{ORDON DRY GIN has been distinguished for its purity, 4{ uniformity and aromatic flavor, and in the near future, as a further distinguishing feature, in protection to the American public will be put up exclusively in a bottle of unique form, not a square bottle, or a round bottle, but a Gordon bottle, a form which would be recognized as Gordon at any time. aii WING to countless imitations of Gordon labels on the square bottles which were originally employed for Gordon London Dry Gin and subsequently employed for every kind of gin put up in the United States, compounds as well as distillates—to the confusion of consumers, a bottle of different form will dis- tinguish Gordon Loudon Dry Gin from the American product. aT EPEATED inquiries have been made in the past as to identification of “‘Genuine Gordon.”” The new bottle will have such distinguishing features any attempt at substitution would be readily detected and, fortunately, there are laws which govern imitations. The purchaser will identify the genuine by both label and form. "}EALERS will for a time continue to supply the square bottles of ‘“‘Gordon”’ as it is impossible to arrest a business of such magnitude while a change is under way. The new bottle will find its way to the American market in an orderly way with due notice to the public on each bottle, that the change and the necessity for it may be fully understood. THERS may employ bottles of distinctive form without criticism—our desire is to definitely indicate London Dry Gin distilled in Loudon by Gordon, and if the consumer prefers gin compounded or distilled elsewhere there is no objection. The new bottle will be a Loudon bottle, employed by Gordon exclusively and registered in London. ah jo TICE is given to the public, that having originally used the ai, square bottle for Dry Gin and now abandoning it for protection Hy to the public for the bottle of new form, we shall prosecute any infringement of our trade-mark and imitation of our new form of bottle to the full extent of the law. GORDON’S DRY GIN CO., LTD. LONDON, ENGLAND E. LA MONTAGNE’S SONS NEW YORK AGENTS comicbooks.com