Life, 1915-10-28 · page 6 of 52
Life — October 28, 1915 — page 6: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a Christmas-themed advertisement disguised as satirical cartoon content. The illustration shows two figures—one appearing to be Santa Claus and another in formal dress with a top hat—in conversation. The "joke" plays on Santa's traditional reluctance: Santa tells the well-dressed man he's happy because making a combination subscription deal with *Life* magazine means "I won't have to work half as hard this year as usual." The advertisement then pitches *Life* subscriptions as ideal Christmas gifts, positioning the magazine as solving the gift-giving problem. The text encourages readers to "send Life to your friends for a Christmas present"—you provide money, and *Life* handles the rest. This appears to be a mid-20th century marketing strategy blending humor with product promotion.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“My dear Santa, why so gay?” “Owing to a combination I’m making with Lire, I won’t have to work half as hard this year as usual.” Watch this page for the combination Briefly speaking, the idea is for you to send Life to your friends for a Christmas present. You supply the cash. We do everything else. Obey that impulse and write us now how to solve your Christmas present problem. Special jer Enclosed find One Dol (Canadian Foreign ‘Send Lire for three months to Open only to new subscribers; no sub scriptions renewed at this rate. / LIFE, 17. West 31st Street, New York 16 a One Year $5.00. (Canadian $5.52, Foreign $6.04.) F-. comicbooks.com