Life — April 5, 1917 — page 70: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This page is primarily a **Kelly-Springfield Tires advertisement** disguised as editorial cartoon content in *Life* magazine. The illustration shows an early 1900s automobile with two men. One asks the driver ("Reggie") how he knows they're on the right road. The driver responds that they're using Kelly-Springfield tires—implying the quality tires indicate they're making good progress. The joke is a **pun on "the right road"**: the advertiser suggests that using Kelly-Springfield tires guarantees you're traveling correctly, conflating product quality with navigating properly. It's gentle satire of advertising claims that overstate what a product delivers. The cartoon lacks political or social commentary—it's purely commercial messaging wrapped in humorous dialogue, typical of early 20th-century magazine advertising that blurred lines between editorial and promotional content.