Life, 1922-09-14 · page 33 of 40
Life — September 14, 1922 — page 33: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a **tire advertisement**, not political satire. The cartoon illustrates a wager between two boys watching a reckless driver navigate a wet curve. One bet predicts a skid into the fence; the other confidently counters that the driver is safe because he's using Kelly-Springfield Kant-Slip Cord tires. The advertisement exploits the humor of the boys' contrasting predictions to sell tires by demonstrating their superior grip and safety. The "non-skid tread" feature—a selling point of early 20th-century tire technology—prevents the crash the first boy expects. The ad's appeal centers on **practical safety and reliability**: even in dangerous conditions (wet roads, sharp curves), these tires won't fail. The closing pitch emphasizes that this superior product now costs no more than competitors, making it an economical choice for car owners concerned with both safety and mileage.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
a est lowfe22 “Betcha nickel he skids into the fence when he hits that wet curve, Jimmy.” “Take his bet, Jimmy—that feller’s driving on Kelly-Springfield Kant-Slip Cords.” = fact that Kelly-Springfield Kant-Slip Cords hold the road is only one reason why you see so many of them on cars today. Even the old Kelly Cords, which cost more than other tires and which lacked the present extraor- dinary efficient non-skid tread, achieved such a reputa- tion for big mileage that we had no difficulty In selling all we could make. In the Kant-Slip Cord the non-skid ‘feature has been developed to an extent that makes this tire incomparably the best we have ever built—and the mileage is still there. Best of all, it now costs no more to buy a Kelly. comicbooks.com