Life, 1919-02-06 · page 29 of 38
Life — February 6, 1919 — page 29: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is **not a cartoon or satire**—it's a Goodyear Tire advertisement disguised as educational content. The page presents "Lesson 1" of a "Tire Conservation Course" to appear instructional rather than purely promotional. The ad tells a case study: a car's tires wore dangerously fast due to misaligned wheels from an accident. By "truing up" (realigning) the wheels at a Goodyear Service Station, the tires gained an extra 5,000 miles of life. The pitch is straightforward: one in three cars has wheel misalignment problems that destroy tire life. Modern readers might miss that this represents early **automotive consumer education as marketing**—Goodyear frames tire care as a service benefit, positioning their dealers as trustworthy maintenance experts. The "Conservation Course" suggests responsible car ownership while directing customers to Goodyear stations. This reflects pre-Depression-era marketing strategy: building brand loyalty through educational authority rather than aggressive sales tactics.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
TIRE CON; “RVATION COURSE LESSON 1 Seaes'ah | Series of Six Truing ¢ P Wheels | ‘ Saving 5,000 Miles By “‘Truing Up’? Wheels LARGE multi-cylinder car recently came to a Goudyear rvice Station in Chicago with the treads on two Goodyear Cord Tires showing evidence of recent rapid wear, The tires had run 8,500 miles, but in the last few days the treads had been wearing down alarmingly. It was found that a recent accident had twisted the front wheels seriously, so that they were out of line. The grinding action due to this misalignment was cutting down the treads so rapidly that in a fez days more the tires would have been out of commis- sion. The wheels were re-aligned. The tires ran a total of more than 13,500 miles. 5,000 miles of tire wear were saved in this case by “‘truing up"’ the wheels in time. Have your Goodyear Service Station Dealer test your car today for whéel alignment. NE car in three has wheels out of line that rob their tires of thousands of miles. Not even the Goodyear All-Weather Tread can long resist the grinding wear that such wheels inffict on tires. They grind down a tread precisely as if it were held squarely against a revolving grindstone. Misalignment is most common on the right front wheel, because it is most frequently run into ruts and gutters and against curbings. On othersa rim improperly applied, a bent steering knuckle, a worn bearing, or a warped axle may cause a like condition. A misalignment of only three-quarters of an inch is enough to reduce by 5,000 miles or more the life of the best tires. Only themost careful measurementscan detect the condition. Ask your Goodyear Service Stationto inspect your car today. Ask also for Lesson 1 of the Goodyear Conservation Course, dealing with the detection and correction of wheels out of line, so that you or your chauffeur can in future make inspections when you delay too long your calls at your Service Station. The Goodyear Tire ( Rubber Co., Akron, Ohio TIRE SAVERS comicbooks.com