Life, 1915-04-08 · page 3 of 44
Life — April 8, 1915 — page 3: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is primarily a **car advertisement**, not political satire. It promotes the Hudson automobile at $1,550, emphasizing that their new "Light Six" model successfully overcame previous barriers—high price, heavy weight, expensive repairs, and tire costs—that had plagued earlier Six-cylinder cars. The satirical element is visual: rocks labeled with these complaints form a literal barrier that the Hudson automobile jumps over, suggesting the car has triumphed where competitors failed. The ad references Howard E. Coffin's design and claims 10,000 Hudsons are running successfully, with dealer availability nationwide. This represents early 1910s automotive marketing, when manufacturers competed vigorously on reliability and value propositions to an expanding middle-class car market.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
UNDERQUAIN U ERQU, (a JALIT} Y The Hudson First Surmounted All These Barriers to Sixes Look back four years, please—to the time when Howard E. Coffin started to design this HUDSON. Every Six was a high-priced car. Every Six was a heavy car. Every Six was costly in tires, in fuel, in upkeep. All men envied, but few could enjoy, the luxury of Sixes Note Conditions Now Then came this new-type HUDSON, weighing under 3000 pounds. Price, fuel and tire cost were cut practically in two. Motordom fairly gasped. And they said, you know, that such things were impossible in a sturdy, high-grade car. Look now where the Light Six stands. It dominates the field above $1000. It is almost taken for granted, when one speaks of a class car, that it is of this HUDSON type. Remember that as one contribution which HUDSON en- gineers made to motoring. They opened the gates to Sixes. 10,000 Now Running All Doubters Won Over Most motorists, we think, never doubted that this new- type car was right. It was a Howard E. Coffin creation— a HUDSON—and that was assurance enough. They bought hundreds before they saw it. Then they came by the thousands. For one whole year we kept weeks behind on orders, while we multiplied our output by five. Now more than 10,000 are running. In the past two seasons they have covered millions of miles. If there are now any doubters, there are owners near by to say, “ HUDSON is perfect—it’s my ideal car.” Others May Be Right Other Light Sixes among the newcomers may prove themselves right in time. But HUDSON has proved al- ready. It's an attained success. Its designers had a four- year start. In a hundred ways it is better than when new, just as other new cars will be bettered. The HUDSON is a finished production. Every touch and detail shows this. It is the lightest 7-passenger Six. And it stands preeminent in most minds, we think, as the class car of this type. Inquiry and comparison will point you to the HUDSON. This car is certainly night. No car ever built is a safer investment. And men who take pride in their cars like to say, “ My car is a HUDSON.” Our dealers are everywhere. 7-Passenger Phaeton, $1550, f. 0. b. Detroit Four other body styles The HUDSON Company never loses interest in the cars it sells. So long as a car in in service we maintain our interest in the character of its service. That's one great treason for HUDSON reputation. HUDSON MOTOR CAR COMPANY, Detroit, Michigan