Life, 1928-02-23 · page 33 of 35
Life — February 23, 1928 — page 33: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two elements: a travel contest results section and an advertisement disguised as satirical commentary. **The Advertisement ("Car and Cargo"):** This is an Arrow Shirts ad using mock-serious verse to satirize 1920s consumer culture and gender norms. The "joke" targets the emerging automobile era's social anxieties: that car ownership had become primarily about *appearance and status* rather than functionality. The satire mocks both: - **Women's fashion expectations**: the assumption that women passengers must wear only silk and maintain pristine appearance - **Male vanity**: men "dressing up" both their cars and themselves for social display The punchline—that it's "the Looks" that matter, not "engine or brakes" or "miles per gallon"—critiques shallow materialism while simultaneously selling starched collars as the solution to maintaining proper appearance. It's self-aware advertising: acknowledging consumer superficiality while exploiting it. The photo shows an elegantly dressed couple entering a luxury vehicle, reinforcing the aspirational lifestyle being marketed.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Lire’s All-America Travel Contest PRIZE WINNERS (Kay’s Eighth Letter) First Prize of $75.00—won by P. J. Seartes, 2 Rollins Place, Boston, Massachusetts. Three Second Prizes of $25.00 each—won by: Katuryn H. Givsert, Grand Rapids, Minnesota. M. Cartiste Minor, Dan- rille, Kentuck, Sinan L. Haptey, 2270 Willoughby Avenue, Brooklyn, New York. The Winning Answer to Kay’s Eighth Letter EAR Kay: William Wrigley, Jr., spon- sored 2 across San Pedro Chan- nel to alina Island, not Mr. Bee- man. The Dollar Line, named after Robert Dollar, runs to Hawaii via San Francisco. El var Hotel, Grand View plateau, and the Bright Angel Trail are on the Southern rim of the Grand Canyon. The Canyon is from five to twelve miles wide, about 5,000 feet deep, and resulted from Colorado River erosion. Only by a detour could you pass over the Painted Desert or the Roosevelt Dam en route to Phoenix. Nogales is in Arizona, and El Paso in southwest Texas. You didn't strike the Rio Grande until just be- fore you reached El Paso. Juarez isa town in Mexico across the river, where bootleggers may go for sup- plies. Next time set your watch ahead an hour. Did the Commander of Fort Bliss like it when you used his parade is a flying field? ard Oil is a company which gets some of its oil around Tulsa. Mr. White is publisher of the Em- poria Gazette and Mr. Ade an In- diana humorist. St. Louis, the sixth largest city, was founded 164 years ago by a trader. The Missouri and Illinois (not Chicago) Rivers join the Mississippi about twenty miles above St. Louis. Jefferson City is the capital of Missouri. Lindbergh took off, not from Langley Field, Virginia, but from Lambert Field for New York, pre- Paratory to flying to Paris. Broad- (Please turn to page 32) CAR ann CARGO You cannot imagine that the lady who steps out of this exquisite bit of work in motor cars Will expose calves clothed in anything but silk Or that her mate will expose a neck clothed in anything but a starched collar The makers of the car have heard the call of style and have put forth this dainti- ly appointed equipage To meet the social requirements of this style-wise age. And it’s not the engine or the brakes Or the miles per gallon any more It’s the Looks. And men who dress up to their cars And up to their women folks Wear Arrow Starched Couars. Cuuetr, Peasopy & Co., Inc. Arrow Shirts Collars Underwear Handkerchiefs comicbooks.com