Life, 1918-07-04 · page 29 of 36
Life — July 4, 1918 — page 29: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a **wartime advertisement** by Eastman Kodak Company, likely from WWI era, responding to German propaganda. The page reproduces a German circular urging citizens to boycott American products, specifically Kodak cameras, as supporting enemy war loans. Kodak's response is satirical: they reprint the German message verbatim, then use its own logic against it. The Germans' complaint—that "Kodak" had become a genericized trademark for all cameras—actually proves Kodak's market dominance and cultural penetration in Germany itself. The slogan "If it isn't an Eastman it isn't a Kodak!" underscores this: Kodak owns the brand so completely that even German enemies cannot escape it. By publishing this anti-Kodak propaganda in *Life*, Kodak turns their opponent's economic attack into free advertising, demonstrating American industrial superiority and market strength to American readers.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
y EIGERER j.|-Lf it isn’t an Eastman it ism't a Kodak! Ai translation of the circular in full is as follows: “It is the duty of every German to use only Ger- man products and to patronize thereby German industry. Therefore, use for photographic purposes only German cameras, German Dry Plates and German papers. Whoever purchases the products of enemy industries strengthens the economic power of our enemies. “Germans! Remember for all times to come that with the aid of your patronage the American- English Kodak Co. subscribed before the war with the United States, the round sum of 50,000,000 marks of war loans of our enemies! ‘*There are no German ‘Kodaks’. (‘Kodak’ as a collective noun for photographic products is mis- leading and indicates only the products of. the Eastman Kodak Co.) Whoever speaks of a ‘Kodak’ and means thereby only a photographic camera, does not bear in mind that with the spreading of this word, he does harm to the German industry in favor of the American-English.”’ Df it isn’t an Eastman it isn’t a Kodak! EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY Rochester, N. Y. The Kodak City