Life, 1925-01-01 · page 35 of 37
Life — January 1, 1925 — page 35: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a satirical New Year's resolution ad for *Life* magazine. The cartoon shows "John J. Everybody" (an everyman figure) making a tongue-in-cheek "Declaration of Independence" by subscribing to the magazine for the coming year. The joke is that *Life* promises liberation from "gloom and depression for fifty-two weeks" through entertainment—but the promised "fruits of freedom" are mundane: automobile numbers, gossip ("boobs"), commuter humor, and California content. The satire mocks both New Year's resolutions (often quickly abandoned) and consumerism's false promise that buying something (magazine subscription) equals actual freedom or happiness. The earnest language mimicking the Declaration of Independence intensifies the comic deflation—America's founding document reduced to justifying a $5 magazine purchase as a path to happiness. This reflects 1930s-era satirical humor about consumer culture and optimism.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
A Bill of Rights RESOLUTION Be it RESOLVED that I, John J. Everybody, do hereby start the New Year Right—right down in the lower corner. This Declaration of Independence—which liber- ates you from gloom and depression for fifty-two weeks—will bring you immediately such fruits of freedom as. AUTOMOBILE NUMBER DIXIE “ BOOBS' “ COMMUTERS’ “ CALIFORNIA “ Be sure you're Right (you are!), then go ahead. All right 7 Here's my Five Dollars (Canadian, J $380; Foreign, $6.60) Send Lire for one year to comicbooks.com