Life, 1913-11-06 · page 36 of 56
Life — November 6, 1913 — page 36: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a **product advertisement**, not satire or political commentary. It promotes the Jeffery Four automobile manufactured by The Thomas B. Jeffery Company in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The ad addresses a specific market skepticism: a dealer claimed you couldn't build a quality car selling for $1,550. Jeffery responds by claiming they've done exactly that—proving it by reporting that dealers ordered over fifty percent of the factory's output within days of announcement. The pitch emphasizes: forty years of manufacturing experience, five million dollars in assets, European engineering combined with American practice, and quality components throughout. The illustration shows an open-air touring car with two elegantly-dressed occupants. This represents early automotive marketing (page 796 suggests early 20th century), when automobiles were still luxury goods and manufacturability at affordable prices was genuinely remarkable and competitive.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Canit Be Done? NE big motor car dealer said when he saw this Jeffery Four: ‘It can’t be done. You can’t build it to sell for $1550—it’s too good.”’ We proved to him that it can be done—by a manufacturer with the experience, capital and equip- ment. Three days later he wired us an order for eight hundred cars. Now we have done it, and here it is. The highest grade car in all its elements, and sold at $1550. This is the first public announcement of this aston- ishing car. We know it’s astonishing, because when the dealers heard of it and saw it they placed orders fer more than fifty per cent of the output of this factory for the next twelve months. _ It’s a manufactured car —produced in a plant backed by forty years of manu- facturing experience and five million dollars in assets. It would be impossible to build a car like this to sell for $1550 without the factory, capital and equip- ment to produce in great quantities. The Jeffery Four is the product of the best Euro- pean experience - therefore a little in advance of the best American practice. Watch for the attempts to imitate this car. We have given it the name of Jeffery because we want the world to know that Jeffery built it. The world already knows the reputation behind that name. The Jettery Four, $1550 If it's in the Jeffery it's High Grade comicbooks.com