Life, 1925-06-11 · page 36 of 36
Life — June 11, 1925 — page 36: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is primarily a **product advertisement**, not political satire. The joke centers on generational attitudes toward facial hair and grooming standards. **The Setup:** A young man examines a portrait of his bearded father, remarking "And Dad was only my age when he sat for that!" The implication is that his father looked older due to his beard. **The Social Context:** The ad argues that beards were formerly kept because shaving was painful and difficult—a practical excuse for facial hair. However, with modern shaving cream, this excuse no longer applies. The ad frames daily shaving as now both a "business" necessity and "social requirement." **The Satire:** The humor lies in the contrast between old and modern masculinity standards. Keeping a beard once signified manhood; now clean-shaving represents the modern, young, and successful man. The ad leverages generational anxiety about appearing old or outdated to promote daily grooming as a modern social obligation. This reflects early 20th-century shifts toward clean-shaven masculine ideals in American culture.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
LIFE Shave every day—be comfortable COLGATE’ for better shaving ‘And Dad was only my age when he sat for that!” A man may be as young as he feels, but he gets no credit for it if whiskers make him look old. Formerly, when shaving was difficult and painful, there was a logical reason for the herbage that overspread most of the manly countenances. Now the removal of facial sprouts is neither difficult nor agonizing. Colgate’s Rapid- Shave Cream softens the beard at the base, where the razor’s work is done. It makes shaving easy, Icaves the face soothed and velvety, and deprives whiskers of any excuse for gaining headway. Daily shaving has become a busi- ness, as well as a social requirement. COLGATE & CO. Established 1806 NEW YORK COLGATE & CO. LS; ? Let us send you a trial tube Dept. 23 . ee Si NA YoE of this wonderful cream — 199 Fulton St; New xe! enough for 12 better shaves Please send me the trial tube of Colgate’s than you have ever had. Just Rapid-Shave Cream for better shaving. n aac fill out and mail the handy / coupon, with 4c. comicbooks.com