Life, 1922-11-09 · page 34 of 36
Life — November 9, 1922 — page 34: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a **Life magazine advertisement** for yearly subscriptions, not a political cartoon. It features a Cupid figure pointing at a blackboard showing subscription math. The satire targets academic economics and the professor's overwrought logic. He presents the simple choice between weekly newsstand purchases versus annual subscription as a grand economic principle worthy of charts and demonstrations. The joke is that he's using inflated professorial language and economic theory to justify what's obvious: buying annually saves money. The humor lies in the absurdity—describing a $2.90 savings with the gravitas of serious economic scholarship, and suggesting that modest saving could fund "more than half" another subscription. It's gentle mockery of how academics can complicate straightforward truths, while simultaneously pitching LIFE's subscription offer to readers who appreciate both wit and value.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“By All Means, Subscribe to LIFE by the Year” Says This Learned Professor of Economics “LIFE is a necessity,” says the Professor. “The problem then is to se- cure it for the least expendi- ture of monies,” he continues. “This is simple. “We have two ways of get- ting LIFE. One I may call the unscientific or uneconomic method—that of buying it at the newsstand week by week. The other, or scientific, method is that of subscribing by the year. “T have demonstrated clearly on my chart that you may save $2.90 by the latter (or scien- tific) method. It requires some Subscribe for a year and save $2.90 character and courage, I know, to part with $5.00 all at one time, but a saving of $2.90 is not to be sneezed at. “Why, with this saving of $2.90 you can pay more than half of another yearly subscrip- tion to LIFE next year. How interesting is economics! “Use the coupon and save writing paper.” comicbooks.com > weet