Life, 1914-06-25 · page 5 of 45
Life — June 25, 1914 — page 5: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is primarily a **Fisk Rubber Company advertisement**, not political satire. The main image shows two well-dressed women in a car with a child, promoting tire reliability. The company emphasizes "honesty of purpose" and claims fifteen years of tire-making expertise, positioning their product as trustworthy. The small inset cartoon titled "Time to Re-Tire? (Buy Fisk)" depicts a train conductor or porter figure—likely a period racial caricature—serving as a visual pun on "re-tire." This type of imagery was common in early 20th-century advertising but reflects deeply offensive stereotyping practices of that era. The advertisement targets middle-class consumers, particularly families, emphasizing safety and confidence in their tires.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Time to Re-Tire? (Buy Fisk) We Are Counting on You Fisk Advertising must reflect the “honesty of sale o What we say is to be taken at its face value. We are counting on you to recognize and appreciate this fact and to make the most of it. Fifteen years of expert tire-making, fifteen years of selling these tires cleanly, on the basis of merit, entitle us to your CONFIDENCE, which, if once obtained, we endeavor always to hold. THE FISK RUBBER COMPANY Factory and Home Office, Chicopee Falls, Mass. 18,000 Dealers Everywhere and Fisk Branches in Principal Cities urpose” governing the manufacture and PF isk Products comicbooks.com