Life, 1916-12-07 · page 3 of 94
Life — December 7, 1916 — page 3: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page is primarily **advertising, not satire or political commentary**. It's a full-page advertisement for "Exide" automobile batteries by The Electric Storage Battery Company (Philadelphia, PA). The ad uses a striking visual metaphor: a muscular male figure (appearing to represent strength/power) holds up a large battery, while below, seven silhouetted figures in checkered pants hold papers labeled "Exide Service." This imagery emphasizes the battery's reliability and the company's service network. The headline "A Song of Service" frames battery performance as dependable and engineered by experienced professionals ("twenty-eight years" of expertise mentioned). The slogan "The Giant that lives in a box" references the product's concentrated power. This reflects 1920s-era advertising strategies emphasizing industrial reliability and service infrastructure.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
A Song of Service “ Exide" Service begins with the careful selection of raw material; it continues throughout all the closely supervised Processes of manufacture—it reaches you in the shape cf a powerful and dependable battery for starting, lighting and ignition; it doubly insures its unfailing performance by a country-wide chain of ** Exide” Service Stations. ‘When you put an “Extde'’ Battery in your automobile you are getting a battery built on the brains of electrical engineers who for twenty-eight years have been devoting their energies to producing practical batteries for practical purposes, “* Exide’ Service, both that which is built into the battery itself and that which is always ready to your command at the Service Stations, is not a promise but a performance. “ There's an *Extde" Battery for every Car” “ The Giant that lives in a box” THEELECTRIC STORAGE BATTERY CO. ‘The oldest and largest manufacturer of Storage Batteries in this country Yon 1888 = PHILADELPHIA,PA. —1916 New’ Boston Washi St.Louis Cleveland Beet Chicago fashington, Sen Prancioon St Lowe ce “Exide %, ** tronclade®xive % ** HucapeExide’ and ‘ ThinsExid¢ ** Batteries for Electric Vehicles i (eee Service ersices > N (iis oe