Life — February 1, 1923 — page 4: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis This is **advertising, not satire or editorial content**. It's a full-page promotional piece for the Mimeograph machine by A.B. Dick Company. The page uses a bust sculpture (appearing to depict a businessman or industrialist, though unidentified) framed ornamentally to appeal to executives. The ad's pitch emphasizes how mimeographs increase business efficiency by rapidly duplicating documents—letters, memos, forms, plans—at minimal cost. The "democracy of business" framing suggests democratizing access to professional document reproduction, previously expensive or time-consuming. The repeated rhetorical questions target busy executives by quantifying time-savings. This reflects early 20th-century industrial-era marketing: positioning new office technology as essential to American business competitiveness and employee productivity.