Life — August 5, 1920 — page 48: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is primarily a **Life Savers candy advertisement** disguised as editorial content. The page features a poem (attributed to writer Ring Lardner) describing the pleasures of Life Savers mints while driving a car. **The "Satire":** The humor lies in the mock-serious, poetic treatment of an ordinary candy. The poem adopts the romantic, self-indulgent tone of literary verse to describe the mundane experience of sucking on a mint—how it slowly dissolves, the flavor release, the sensory experience. It's tongue-in-cheek advertising that treats the product with exaggerated reverence. **Visual Content:** The illustration shows men driving in an open car in a desert landscape, with a large Life Savers package displayed prominently. Below are product variants (Wintergreen, Cinnamon, etc.). **Historical Context:** This represents early 20th-century advertising that blurred lines between editorial and commercial content—common in magazines like Life. The car-driving scenario and focus on comfort while motoring reflects the 1920s automobile culture. The "joke" is essentially: **why write a poem about candy? Because Life Savers hired the magazine to.**