Life — May 9, 1918 — page 3: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis This is an **advertisement, not a cartoon or satire**. It appears in *Life* magazine (page 743) promoting the Locomobile Company of America's automobiles. The ad emphasizes luxury car manufacturing through rhetoric about craftsmanship: each vehicle receives individual attention and "minute care" through "elaborate processes." The company's "long established policy of limited production" is positioned as enabling meticulous work—a premium market strategy suggesting exclusivity justifies higher prices. The illustration shows a side-view of an early 1900s touring car. The ornate border and refined typography reinforce the brand's positioning as a maker of "fine motor cars" for affluent buyers. This represents early automotive advertising emphasizing handcrafted quality over mass production—a selling point that distinguished luxury manufacturers from emerging competitors like Ford.