Life — April 22, 1915 — page 6: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis This is **not a cartoon or satire**—it's a straightforward automobile advertisement from *Life* magazine's early 20th century. The page announces the "New Locomobile," a luxury car. The illustration shows a fashionably dressed woman admiring the vehicle, which features a low body design, running boards, and wide doors. The ad emphasizes modern refinements: a new dry disc clutch, enclosed valves, improved brakes, left-hand drive, and center control. A notable detail: the company hired **Miss Elie de Wolfe**, a prominent interior decorator and arbiter of taste, to oversee the car's interior design. This positioning the Locomobile as America's "Best Built Car"—a luxury product for wealthy consumers who valued both engineering and artistic refinement. This reflects early automotive marketing targeting affluent buyers.