Life, 1915-07-01 · page 44 of 44
Life — July 1, 1915 — page 44: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is primarily a **Williams' Shaving Soap advertisement**, not political satire. The page uses the format of Life magazine's humorous editorial style to sell a consumer product. The illustration shows two figures—a young man and an elderly man—demonstrating the soap's appeal across a lifetime. The tagline "A lesson from LIFE" plays on the magazine's name to suggest this is editorial wisdom rather than mere advertising. The satirical element is mild: the ad humorously frames soap selection as a profound life choice ("the soap of a lifetime"), exaggerating the product's importance. The elderly character's caricatured features were common in period advertising. The ad emphasizes the soap's gentleness for youth and effectiveness on aging skin, listing four product formats available, with a mail-order sample offer for 4 cents. This represents straightforward early-20th-century product marketing dressed in editorial clothing.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
! A lesson from ‘LIFE’ Begin with Williams’ Shaving Soap and you will use it all of your life Its purity and mildness perfectly adapt it to the tender skin of youth. Its rich, moist, abundant lather effectually softens the wiry beard cf old age. It isn’t alone the comfort it affords while shaving that makes Williams’ the soap of a lifetime. It is also the refreshing after-effects; the peculiar freedom from roughness, smarting or irritation of any kind. Williams’ Shaving Soap is put up in four forms. The new Holder-Top Stick (illustrated here), the Stick in nickel, hinged- top box, the Powder and the Cream. A sample of any form sent for 4 cents in stamps. The J. B. WILLIAMS COMPANY, Dept. A, Glastonbury, Conn. comicbooks.com