Life, 1920-05-13 · page 51 of 52
Life — May 13, 1920 — page 51: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a **car advertisement**, not a political cartoon. It appears in *Life* magazine promoting the Marmon 34 automobile. The ad emphasizes the car's post-World War I credibility by highlighting that Marmon built aircraft engines for the U.S. government during the war. This was a marketing strategy: companies leveraged their military manufacturing experience to suggest reliability and precision engineering for civilian products. The text claims the Marmon 34 applies wartime lessons to achieve superior "performance," smooth operation, and longevity—positioning it as setting new automotive standards. The small badge at bottom left indicates "Champion Liberty Motor" association, further reinforcing patriotic/military connections. This reflects the 1920s trend of war-profiteering companies rebranding themselves as trustworthy civilian manufacturers.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
MARMON 354 A real post-war car is the new series Marmon. Both in fea- tures of design and accuracy of manufacture, it embodies lessonslearned by the Marmon organization in building air- craft engines for the govern- ment. 'For “performance,” for smoothness of operation and for long life, it sets new stand- ‘ards for the automotive world. NORDYKE & MARMON CoMPANY comicbooks.com