Life — November 25, 1915 — page 6: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis This page is primarily a **Christmas gift advertisement** for LIFE magazine subscriptions, not political satire. The cartoon titled "You Forgot Your Life" shows a man gazing upward at an early airplane, holding up a LIFE magazine. The image suggests that readers become so absorbed in following current events through LIFE that they neglect their own lives—a self-aware, humorous critique of the magazine's own power to captivate attention. The advertisement encourages readers to give LIFE subscriptions as Christmas gifts, with the tagline "Obey That Impulse." The messaging plays on the cartoon's joke: give the gift of staying informed and engaged with the world. The early airplane suggests this is from the 1910s-1920s era, when aviation was novel and symbolized modernity and progress—matching LIFE's positioning as the magazine for contemporary readers.