Life, 1920-09-09 · page 31 of 44
Life — September 9, 1920 — page 31: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is **not satire or a political cartoon**, but rather a straightforward advertisement for the Franklin automobile, manufactured in Syracuse, New York. The image shows a luxury car of the era (approximately 1920) with well-dressed figures near a classical building, establishing aspirational messaging. The advertisement argues that Franklin cars deliver above-average performance at below-average cost—an unusual market claim. The specific appeals reflect 1920s motorist concerns: fuel efficiency (20 miles/gallon), tire longevity (12,500 miles per set), and slower depreciation. The text emphasizes "greater comfort, easier control, fewer annoyances"—practical benefits for early automotive ownership when reliability remained uncertain. The headline statistic—65,000 owners with 22% annual growth—functions as social proof, suggesting the Franklin's popularity validates its quality and value proposition. This appears in *Life* magazine, which regularly featured automotive advertisements during this period of rapid automobile market expansion.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
20 miles to the gallon of gasoline 12,500 miles to the set of tires 50% slower yearly depreciation (National Averages) OTOR CAR performance above the average is something that most owners are willing to pay for, With the Franklin you not only get such performance, but get it at /ess cost. Greater comfort, easier control, fewer annoyances and delays, even in covering greater distances in a day—all this is yours with a Franklin. And yet your gasoline, tire and repair bills are practically Aa/ved. Nothing indicates more clearly what motorists think of this combined road-ability and economy than this fact: 1920 will increase the total number of Franklin owners to over 65,000—an increase of more than 22% during the year. FRANKLIN AUTOMOBILE COMPANY, SYRACUSE, N. Y. comicbooks.com