Life, 1928-03-01 · page 12 of 42
Life — March 1, 1928 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page documents a successful "photographers' model"—a man who appears in various commercial advertisements and promotional materials. The captions track his career progression through different ad campaigns: a dancing-by-mail advertisement, a piano testimonial, a gay party scene, a dandruff product advertisement, a cigarette endorsement, and a correspondence school advertisement where he poses as a corporate president. The satire mocks the absurdity of advertising culture: the same actor/model portrays wildly different personas (incompetent pianist, sophisticated businessman, etc.) across competing products, yet audiences accept these fabricated endorsements as genuine. The final image—his face on a "Brain Power" book cover—suggests the irony that someone paid to fake credibility in advertisements has become a recognizable "authority." The joke targets both advertising's deceptiveness and consumer gullibility.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
His is the second shoulder from the left in the dancing-by- He is one of the friends who laugh at the man that said he mail advertisement. could play the piano. He plays the juvenile lead in the one that He is leading man in the dandruff pic- He is starred in the cigarette testimonial. begins, “There were seven of us in that ture. fay party at Pierre's...” ay He poses for the President of the Corporation in the Corre- A colored photograph of his face, with jaws set and lips spondence School advertisement. compressed, appears on the cover of “Brain Power.” SuccEss COMES TO THE PHOTOGRAPHERS’ MODEL comicbooks.com