Life, 1915-12-02 · page 98 of 100
Life — December 2, 1915 — page 98: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a **Christmas advertisement** for Life magazine's 1916 calendar, not a political cartoon. The page uses humorous hyperbole to market the product. The ad employs satire by making absurdly exaggerated claims: that owning this calendar will grant you "wit, beauty, genuine sentiment and usefulness," and that without it, your home becomes "a desert waste" where you won't know what day it is (except if you're an insurance agent—a jab at their supposed attention to detail). The humor lies in treating a decorative calendar as an essential life necessity. The decorative border featuring portraits and ornamental design reflects early 1900s aesthetic preferences. The price of $1.50 was relatively expensive for the era, making the mock-desperate sales pitch ("Obey that Impulse!") part of the satire—poking fun at consumer culture and aggressive advertising tactics.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Beh histes LIFE: Would you, be the happy _pos- sessor of wit, beauty, genuine sentiment and usefulness? Then you will secure a copy of Life’s Calendar for 1916. Calendar This is the only calendar issued by Lire: for the coming year. It is printed in colors and is about a foot deep by a foot and a half wide. It is beautiful. Without it during the coming year your home will be a desert waste. You will never know (unless you are an insurance agent), when you wake up in the morning, what day of the month it is. Sent to anybody, anywhere, on receipt of $1.50, Obey that Impulse! eee {( Bg GS comicbooks.com