Life, 1915-05-20 · page 2 of 44
Life — May 20, 1915 — page 2: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is **not a political cartoon or satire—it's a product advertisement** for Colgate's Perfumes, appearing in Life magazine. The ad describes a blind taste-test conducted with 103 women comparing six numbered perfume bottles. Three were imported foreign scents; three were domestic Colgate products (Florient, Splendor, Eclat). The advertisement's rhetorical point: when women judged fragrances by scent alone—without brand labels influencing them—Colgate's domestic perfumes outperformed expensive imports. This was a common early-20th-century advertising strategy: claiming scientific objectivity to challenge consumers' assumptions that foreign luxury goods were inherently superior to American products. The ad invites readers to conduct their own test using provided materials for 2 cents postage.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
th iD) of Nobody’ Knew Which Was Which ; These six numbered bottles contained six different perfumes—3 popu- ] w lar imported scents and 3 domestic, Splendor, Florient and Eclat, i made by Colgate & Co. The six were compared by 103 women, i . representing business women, the stage, colleze women and others. | yl Each was asked to compare all six perfumes and to express her | Pe preference by number—judging merely by which scent she liked : uw best—with no names or labels to influence her. | r This is the Way They Chose: 1st choice of 28 women Colgate’s Florient 1st choice of 12 women Foreign Perfume No. 2 1st choice of 26 women Colgate’s Splenac or Ast choice of 10 women Foreign Perfume No. 5 Ist choice of 18 women Foreign Pertume No. 4 1st choice of 9 women Colgate’s Eclat This test—which was absolutely impartial—shows very clearly that the supposed superi- ority of imported perfumes is not actual. With the influence of a foreign label removed, and choices made from fragrance alone, Colgate’s Perfumes were chosen by more than 3/5 of the women—though most of them had said before the test that they preferred imported perfumes. You Can Make the Test Let us send you full instructions, with three Perfumer’s Testing Strips and miniature vials of the Colgate Perfumes, Florient, Splendor and Eclat, so that you may compare them with | the perfume you are now using. This Test Material will be sent promptly on receipt of | c your letter enclosing a 2c stamp for mailing. We are confident that it will convince you, | too, that in fragrance, refinement and delicacy—and above all in that indefinable something f which governs matters of choice—you will find your preference is for Me. S. Keith Eval w a scent Dept. 33> ‘St. d comicbooks.com