Life — March 8, 1917 — page 3: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis This page is primarily **advertising, not satire or political commentary**. It's a A.B. Dick Company advertisement for the Mimeograph machine, placed in *Life* magazine (page 379). The ad shows two businessmen in an office setting with a mimeograph machine between them. The headline "Save a day!" pitches the mimeograph as a solution to printing delays. The copy promises that instead of waiting for printers to typeset and produce documents, secretaries could use the mimeograph to duplicate "forms, letters, price lists or bulletins" immediately—"five thousand in an hour." The appeal targets office efficiency and cost-savings, positioning the mimeograph as a way to bypass traditional printing shops and maintain confidentiality. This reflects early-20th-century office modernization.