Life, 1922-05-04 · page 3 of 34
Life — May 4, 1922 — page 3: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is primarily a **Fisk Tires advertisement**, not political satire. The page promotes Fisk Tires by claiming five minutes of inspection proves their superiority over competitors in "size, strength, resiliency, looks, price." The famous mascot is a **baby in pajamas holding a candle**, captioned "Time to Re-tire? (Buy Fisk)." This iconic imagery—the "Fisk Boy"—became one of early advertising's most recognizable symbols, playing on the double meaning of "tire" (fatigue vs. rubber tire). The price list shows various tire sizes and costs. The advertisement's approach is comparative sales rhetoric rather than satire. The baby mascot was meant to be memorable and whimsical rather than to mock anything specific. This represents early 20th-century advertising in a major American magazine.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Fisk Tires Stand Any Comparison And Show Their Extra Value IVE minutes given to the inspection of Fisk Tires and to comparing them with other makes will go further toward selling them to you than pages of copy could do. The ex- rely Red-T, 17, 30 x 3/2—Six- Ply Non-Skid. Clincher 30x SYe—Sixy Ply Non-Skid Straight ' Side Cord 3ix4 —Six- Ply Non- Skid Cord 32x4 —Non-Skid Ci 32 x 41/—Non-Skid God 2 34x 4Ve—Non-Skid Cord » | —Non-Skid Cord Flat Tread Cord for Trucks— 36 x 6—$77.00: 40 x 8—$136.00 tra value in Fisk Tires this year isso real and so obvious that it will pay any buyer, in money saving and in satis- faction, if he will compare Fisk for size, strength, resil- iency, looks, price. There’s a Fisk Tire of extra value in every size for car, truck or speed wagon Time to Re-tire? (Buy Fisk) TRADE MARK REG. U.S. PAT OFF comicbooks.com