Life, 1916-09-14 · page 27 of 38
Life — September 14, 1916 — page 27: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a **full-page advertisement**, not political satire. It promotes Franco-American Soups, positioning canned soup as both luxurious and affordable for middle-class consumers. The ad uses pseudo-sophisticated language ("soup of the epicure," "cultivated taste") to market convenience food as elegant dining. The Mock Turtle Soup example—describing fine ingredients like calf's head and sherry—attempts to elevate a simple canned product into something befitting formal dinner service. The key sales pitch is **economical luxury**: quality nutrition at twenty cents per can, requiring only heating before serving. This appeals to early 20th-century housewives seeking to entertain respectably without extensive cooking labor. The small illustration shows a formal dinner scene, reinforcing aspirational messaging. The product list emphasizes variety (turtle, consommé, gumbo) to suggest sophistication. This reflects broader marketing strategies of the era, which used class signifiers to sell mass-produced, affordable foods to aspirational consumers.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
SE mM LV are TL Ton WTA ATT the soup of the epicure ‘Dining well- and economically They d dine best who dine wisely. This implies the best food, the most nutritious food, the food which in the last analysis costs the least. The superior and exclusive quality of Franco-American Soups yields not only that higher enjoyment so prized by a cultivated taste, but also the largest return for the ex- penditure, measured in terms of sound health and bodily vigor. For example, our Mock Turtle Soup. The spotless white heads of young calves and finest selected beef from the fore quarter yield the meat stock, blended with a rich, thick vegetable puree of juicy tomatoes, red-hearted Chantenay carrots, tender little onions, crisp chopped celery, and parsley—all specially grown for this use. Marjoram, savory, sweet basil, dry thyme, bay-leaves, nutmeg, and sherry are “touched in” with an artist’s fine hand. Succulent cubes of calf's head meat top this dish to grace the table of an epicure— and your menu this evening, if you will but telephone your grocer! Twenty cents the can Merely heat before serving At the better stores Franco - American Soups Selections: Tomato fuliesne Clam Chowder Mock Turtle jutton Broth Ox Tail, thide Clear Vegetable Clear Ox Tail Vegetable, thick Consommé Chicken Consommé Bouillon Chicken Gumbo Mulligatawny Green Turtleythick (45) Clear Green Turtle (60) Makers of Franco-American Broths for Invalids and Children Beet—Chicken—. Aion Clee the can comicbooks.com