Life, 1926-08-19 · page 35 of 37
Life — August 19, 1926 — page 35: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is primarily a **du Pont company advertisement** for Duco finish (an early automobile lacquer), not political satire. The page uses a historical framing device: an illustration showing a man and woman in 19th-century dress observing a scene labeled as referencing Commodore Perry's 1812 expedition to Lake Erie. This nostalgic imagery accompanies the headline "Going back to go ahead!"—a play on du Pont's development strategy. The advertisement argues that du Pont's engineers rejected conventional wisdom, "stepping backwards" through the company's century-old chemical expertise to innovate a superior finish. The point: Duco is not merely an incremental improvement but a fundamentally new product with exceptional durability. The copy emphasizes exclusivity and superiority, claiming Duco is the "only ONE" genuine product of its kind, available for automobiles, furniture, and household items. This is advertising copy emphasizing innovation and brand dominance rather than satire or political commentary.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
| Going back ON to go ahead! c | du Pont Pieter Wagon i en route to HE way in which Duco was created | Lake Erie with of Commodore Perry in 1812, Old-time finishes would not meet modern demands. Experiment proved that nothing Du Pont experi was born with the, could be added to increase the durability of NEE: nu these finishes whose very chemical nature supplies for the fleet | will interest you. i AM: SA made them fragile, so du Pont Chemical Engineers wasted no time upon them. In- stead, to go ahead, they first stepped backwards. Discarding all theories, disregarding all prec- edent, retracing and searching their way through the century-old chemical experience of the du Pont organization, they found a new kind of finish. And its outstanding, distinctive virtue is tremendous endurance, After that, ten years were spent in intensive experiment in order to add to this base the final qualities of surpassing beauty which characterize Duco, the enduring finish. So, if you are told, “This finish is like Duco” —or“That finish is the same as Duco”—it will be well to remember that DUCO is no mere improvement of previously existing finishes; that it imitates nothing; that there is only ONE Duco, DU PONT Duco, the exclusive product of du Pont laboratories, How — can _ DUCO ON YOUR NEW CAR, DUCO is the smart finish on the most able motor cars. More than thirty-five of the leading makers se it on their 1926 mod: ON YOUR PRESENT CAR. There is an experienced Refi Bear you who can renew the appearance of your cat, by & methods, with a job equivalent in every way to that ON YOUR NEW FURNITURE. DUCO-Period furniture is pro- duced by more than seventy manufacturers. With its heirloom — t is advertised, displayed, and sold by progressive merchants « on in all'sections of this country. ? sews carers OTHER USES OF DUCO. Every day finds DUCO used for a new and important purpose. It is offered you on pianos, toys, washing machines, and on thousands of other articles. e reuagamiuouiesg;pveowtmtoammccete There is only ONE Duco Fula ont de Nemours & Corte Chernieal Products Division, in, +e Detroit, ic Chicago, Il San_F c Cal, Everett, Mass., or Flint Paint ad Varnish Limited. Toronto,Canada: —D U P ONT D uco comicbooks.com