Life — March 4, 1920 — page 11: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Page Analysis This page is **primarily advertising**, not satire. The main content is a large advertisement for Pepsodent toothpaste, featuring a photograph of a dentist demonstrating the product to a woman patient. The ad claims that "6,000 More People Every Day Start Saving Teeth in This Way" using Pepsodent's new formula. It emphasizes the product's ability to remove a "viscous film" that causes tooth decay—a selling point that appears to have been Pepsodent's marketing innovation at the time. The left column contains an unrelated satirical poem titled "The Public: An Improvisation on a Theme" by Edward Hope, mocking public behavior and attitudes. At bottom is a brief humorous "Census Man" exchange about spelling corrections, entirely separate from the advertisement above.