Life, 1915-03-18 · page 33 of 40
Life — March 18, 1915 — page 33: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is primarily a **Willard Storage Battery advertisement**, not satire or political cartoon. The page advertises car batteries by listing approximately 85 car manufacturers who allegedly use Willard batteries—a sales strategy exploiting brand endorsements. The text claims "85 per cent [of] American car builders" trust Willard, making it an appeal to authority and majority consensus. The imagery shows a well-dressed man in a car, representing the aspirational automobile owner. The extensive list of car brands (Abbott-Detroit, Auburn, Chevrolet, etc.) documents early American automobile manufacturers, many now defunct. The advertisement emphasizes reliability through "250 Willard Service Stations" and offers a free instructional booklet. For modern readers, this reveals the era when automobiles were still luxury goods, battery technology was critical to operation, and brand competition was intense among dozens of competing car manufacturers—most of which disappeared within decades.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Oo You Can Trust the Judgment of an 85 per cent Majority of AMERICAN CAR BUILDERS lO Have You one of these Whose Makers Have Contracted for Willard Batteries? Abbott-Detroit Colby Allen Coleman Alter American LaFrance Corbitt Crane Crawford Atlas-Knight Crescent Atterbury Crow Auburn Cunningham Austin Detroiter Davis Denby Briscoe Dodge Brockway Dorris Case . Empire Chalmers Enger Chandler Federal Chevrolet Franklin Commerce Continental Firestone Kissel-Kar Marmon Scripps-Booth Gramm Kline National Seagrave Gramm-Bernstein Knox Norwalk Great Eagle Kat Overland Simplex Great Western Lexington Pod Glide Locomobile Harwood-Barley Lozier Page Haynes Lewis Pilgrim Hupmobile Lyons-Atlas Peerless Halladay Lancia Pilot Singer ler Spaulding Speedwell Stafford Stearns Steel-King Stegeman Herff-Brooks Lambert Pope-Hartford Sternberg Howard McFarlan Premier Studebaker Imperial McIntyre Partin-Palmer Stutz Briggs-Detroiter De-Dion-Bouton Interstate Marion Regal Indiana Renault Jackson Reo Tudhope Touraine Velie Jeffery i Richmond Westcott Jones i Russell Kelly Saxon King Sayers Wichita Winton Zimmerman BACKED BY EXPERT, RELIABLE BATTERY SERVICE AT GOOD SERVICE Make sure of it by send- ing for address of your nearest Willard Branch or Service Station. 250 WILLARD SERVICE STATIONS and the Willard Storage Battery Co. General Offices and Works, Cleveland, DETROIT: 7 SEND FORBOOK “Your Storage Battery —what it is and how to care for it.” Ask for booklet D-1. Free. comlichooks.coln)