Life — July 19, 1917 — page 2: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis of "Caesar" Michelin Advertisement This is a **Michelin Tire Company advertisement** disguised as humorous verse and illustration, not political commentary. The poem tells a story about a man named Caesar with a long beard who experiments with tire tubes in his garage. The satire is **commercial, not political**: it humorously demonstrates Michelin's competitive advantage—their tubes are "rounded" and "moulded," preventing wrinkles and pinches, unlike competitors' "straight" tubes. Caesar becomes a satisfied customer ("I've proved Michelin's fitter"), riding triumphantly in a chariot pulled by a horse. The Michelin Man mascot appears at right. The joke relies on personification and mock-heroic language to make tire manufacturing sound dramatically important—typical early 20th-century advertising exaggeration.