Life, 1917-05-03 · page 35 of 42
Life — May 3, 1917 — page 35: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a **motor oil advertisement**, not a political cartoon. The page is from Life magazine (page 827) and promotes Havoline Oil by the Indian Refining Company. The ad uses metaphorical language—"Pour this oil on the troubled sea of motoring"—playing on the biblical phrase "pour oil on troubled waters" to suggest the product will smooth out car troubles. The visual shows oil being poured onto actual water, literalizing the metaphor. The pitch emphasizes product reliability: sealed containers guarantee purity and prevent adulteration, which was a genuine consumer concern in early automotive days. The claims about longer engine life, better gas mileage, and easier control reflect period anxieties about vehicle performance and maintenance. This is straightforward commercial messaging, not satire or social commentary.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Pour this oil on the troubled sea of motoring —and watch your car perform as it never performed before. The smooth, powerful body of Havoline Oil keeps all rub- bing surfaces safely apart. This means longer engine life, less internal wear and tear, longer mileage on gas, easier control, less depreciation. Insist that Havoline Oil comes to you in the original, sealed Havoline container— your guarantee of supreme and uniform quality, highest purity, no waste, no dirt, full quantity, and all Havoline. Havoline is easy to identify. It comes to u in sealed cans, dark blue with white Ietering, containing full measure of this correct lubricant for automobiles and tractors. Indian Refining Company, NewYork Incorporated Producers and Refiners of Petroleum comicbooks.com