Life, 1921-03-24 · page 6 of 34
Life — March 24, 1921 — page 6: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is primarily a **product advertisement** for tire chains, not political satire. The dramatic illustration shows a distressed man receiving a telephone call about a car accident involving his wife. The scenario is entirely fictional—created to sell safety equipment. The ad's appeal is **fear-based marketing**: it warns that without tire chains, cars will skid on wet roads, potentially causing serious injury or death. The narrative suggests the man is negligent for not equipping his vehicle, and that his wife's hospitalization could have been prevented. This reflects early-20th-century automotive safety concerns—tire chains were genuinely important winter equipment before modern tires existed. The ad targets middle-class car owners, implying that responsible fathers and husbands must purchase this product.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“What! My Car?” “Yes! Skidded—and it’s up to you. You failed to provide the chauffeur with Tire Chains. Only good luck saved your wife from paying the supreme penalty for your negligence. She’s on the way to the hospital, painfully injured, but the doctor thinks she'll pull through.” How strange it is that disaster must come to some men before they realize that all tires will skid on wet pavements and muddy roads when not equipped with Chains. The time to provide against accidents is before they happen. Don’t wait until after the first skid. Put Weed Chains on all four tires at the first indication of slippery going and you will have quadruple protection against injury, death, car damage and lawsuits. ~ aS AMERICAN CHAIN COMPANY, INCORPORATED BRIDGEPORT \e/ CONNECTICUT In Canada: Dominion Chain Company, Limited, Niagara Falls, Ontario Largest Chain Manufacturers in the World ‘The Complete Chain Line—All Types, All Sizes, All Finishes—From Plumbers’ Safety Chain to Ships’ Anchor Chai GENERAL SALES OFFICE: Grand Central Terminal, New York City DISTRICT SALES OFFICES: Boston Chicago Philadelphia Pittsburgh ‘Portland, Ore. San Francisco TATU comicbooks.com jin meine