Life — July 16, 1914 — page 5: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis This page is primarily a **Fisk Rubber Company advertisement**, not political satire. The image shows two fashionably dressed women in a convertible automobile, wearing striped clothing and elaborate hairstyles typical of the 1910s-1920s era. The illustration represents leisure and modernity—automobiles were still relatively novel and associated with wealth and style. The advertisement's text emphasizes Fisk Tires' quality, manufacturing standards, and customer service. The small inset shows Fisk's trademark mascot (the "Fisk Boy"), suggesting this ran repeatedly in Life magazine. The "satire" here is gentle: the ad humorously positions tire-purchasing as offering a "square deal" to consumers, invoking Theodore Roosevelt's famous political slogan to sell a consumer product—typical of how 1910s-20s advertising borrowed political rhetoric for commercial purposes.