Life, 1922-09-28 · page 35 of 36
Life — September 28, 1922 — page 35: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is **not a cartoon or satirical piece**, but rather **sponsored advocacy content** — explicitly published "in co-operation with The American Association of Advertising Agencies." The text argues that economic hardship creates opportunity: by discovering that consumer demand can be artificially created through advertising, American business can control its own markets. The author frames advertising as a tool to manufacture desire for products, positioning this as beneficial during difficult economic times (likely post-WWI or early Depression era). Modern readers should recognize this as **early corporate propaganda** — a straightforward pitch that advertising isn't merely informative but fundamentally creates demand where none existed. The piece celebrates this manipulative capacity as an "asset," essentially arguing businesses can now manufacture their own prosperity through sophisticated marketing. This represents foundational thinking in modern consumer capitalism.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Making an Asset of Difficulties A great opportunity is now be- fore American business—the op- portunity of making a big and permanent asset out of the very difficulties of the present situa- tion. The conviction that this can be done is extremely heart- ening. It is enough to put a new thrill of life and activity into every form of industry. From one point of view the present situation is by far the most desirable, the soundest, the sanest, and the most hopeful this country has ever seen. Why? Because it brings into bold relief, through sheer necessity, the latent power to create conditions as we would like to have them. The curtailment of Demand for the products of industry brought us face to face with the question, hitherto ignored, as to what causes demand. Then it was discovered that Demand was a created thing, and that more of it could be created in al- most any direction—if enough of the right effort were applied. Chief among the means of creating Demand is now seen to be Advertising. Wherever you find a big demand for any prod- uct you find, invariably, that the demand for that product has been stimulated by human effort, and chiefly through advertising. It is obvious to any one who will think it through that the present demand for any product could be substantially lessened if it were possible to eliminate all forms of advertising—including pictures, displays, and word of mouth, as well as printed and painted messages—and just let that product depend on the natural or unstimulated demand. And it is equally obvious that a demand for any worthy prod- uct can be created and stimu- lated by means of Advertising. This fact puts within the hands of the business man the means of creating his own mar- ket. That would be the biggest’ asset he could have—an assured market for all he could produce. Published in co-operation with The Ameri- can Association of Advertising Agencies comicbooks.com