Life, 1920-02-19 · page 44 of 48
Life — February 19, 1920 — page 44: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is not a cartoon but an advertising/editorial essay promoting American capitalism and consumerism. The piece argues that living fundamentally depends on thinking and exchanging ideas. It celebrates America's "unfettered" freedom of thought and action. The key argument: advertisements are valuable—they're "thoughts" from manufacturers sharing ideas for your happiness. Rather than criticizing ads as manipulative (a common progressive concern of the era), the author frames them as voices from millions of workers in factories and studios, democratically offering improved goods. The implicit pitch: consuming advertised products represents intellectual engagement, not passive consumption. Ignoring ads is compared to isolation ("nobody to play with"). This reflects early-20th-century advertising industry ideology: rebranding sales pitches as cultural benefit and positioning consumerism as patriotic participation in American freedom.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THOUGHTS and THINGS The business of living, when boiled down to its clearest essence and all the froth skimmed off, is just a matter of thinking. Each of us is continually thinking ideas of our own and swapping them for the ideas of others. If there is a famine of outside ideas we shrivel up ourselves. Children with ‘‘nobody to play with’? are unhappy and unmanageable. From thinking with our heads to doing with our hands is buta little step and then our thoughts become things. It is because men of Amer- ica are so unfettered in their thinking and doing that this country issuch a fine place to livein. It is also because these thoughts are freely radiated and spread broadcast, in the distribution of manufactured things and in the distribu- tion of the facts about them (advertising), that this coun- try is such a fine place to live in. The originator of an idea is not much better off than be- fore he originated it till he gets some one else to absorb it and enjoy it and benefit by it. The man or woman sur- rounded by better thoughts and things but who paysnotthe slightest attention to them is not much betteroffthanthe one with ‘‘nobody to play with.” Advertisementsare thoughts —telling you about the ideas that other men and women have thought out for your hap- piness. Read the ads. They are the voices from hundreds of thousands of looms, shops, foundries, studios, laboratories, where millions of minds are turning pleasant thoughts into worth while things for your comfort. Gee. Bee. Are. LIFE’S Advertising Manager, 31st St., West, No. 17, New Y B. F. Provandie, Western Mgr., Marquette Bldg., 1537, Chicag? PETER J, CARLY, PRINTER comicbooks.com