Life, 1913-06-19 · page 10 of 52
Life — June 19, 1913 — page 10: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a vintage advertisement for White automobiles, published in Life magazine (page 1206). The ad addresses two audiences: existing White car owners and potential buyers of other brands. The copy claims White Cars pioneered advanced automotive features—left-side drive, electrical systems, selective transmission, and others—making them superior investments that retain value better than competitors' obsolete designs. The satire is implicit rather than explicit: the ad's tone is competitive boasting typical of early automotive advertising when these features were genuinely novel. For modern readers, the irony is that White automobiles are now completely obsolete and forgotten, making the confident claims about long-term investment value darkly humorous in retrospect. The White Company was based in Cleveland, Ohio.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Sour = { = a4 D1 | D wy { my = 7 5 4 4 { 4 \ This is an Old Story to White Owners THEY know that long ago White foresight pro- tected their car investment from undue depreci- ation, the result of obsolete design. Because WHITE Cars were the first to possess all the fundamental features of advanced construction, such as: LEFT SIDE DRIVE RIGHT HAND CONTROL ELECTRICAL STARTING AND LIGHTING ECONOMICAL LONG STROKE, SMALL BORE MOTOR FOUR SPEED SELECTIVE TRANSMISSION MONOBLOC CYLINDERS POWER AIR PUMP SINGLE IGNITION CONCEALED DOOR FITTINGS White owners have their investment secured for years to come. Those who do not own White Cars Should know that to purchase a car that does not shave every one of these important features is to own a car that is already practically obsolete. THE WHITE a COMPANY CLEVELAND [oa ~“comicbooks.com