Life — March 1, 1917 — page 6: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Duratex Advertisement Analysis This is a **product advertisement**, not a political cartoon. The Duratex Company (Newark, N.J.) markets an artificial leather substitute for automobile upholstery. The ad's central conceit contrasts **nature versus progress**: a silhouetted Native American figure (representing "the end of the trail"—a reference to westward expansion's displacement of Indigenous peoples) gazes through a window at modern civilization—a house, roads, and a motor car. The copywriting argues that man-made materials surpass natural ones, claiming Duratex is "as much better than leather as the man-made motor car is better than nature's best agent of travel." The satire appears **unintentional**—juxtaposing Indigenous displacement with celebratory modernization suggests an uncomfortable historical irony the advertisers likely didn't recognize.