Life — February 25, 1926 — page 29: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This is a straightforward automobile advertisement, not a political cartoon or satire. It promotes the Wills Sainte Claire brougham, a luxury car manufactured in Michigan. The ad uses social aspiration as its marketing strategy, targeting wealthy consumers by listing exclusive leisure activities: shopping on London's prestigious Bond Street, hunting in Scotland, and vacationing on the French Riviera in winter. The illustration shows the vehicle with elegantly dressed figures, and birds in flight above suggest freedom and elegance. The humor (if present) is subtle and lies in the advertisement's pretentiousness—marketing a Michigan-made automobile by associating it exclusively with European luxury travel and high society. This appears designed to appeal to affluent American readers of *Life* magazine during the automotive boom era.