Life — August 2, 1928 — page 3: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis of Life Magazine Page This is primarily a **Coca-Cola advertisement** disguised as editorial content, using Shakespeare to sell the product. The page claims Shakespeare's quote "Ever precise in promise keeping" endorses Coca-Cola's reliability. The cartoon depicts **characters from Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure"** (Act 1, Scene 2), humorously reimagined discussing Coca-Cola centuries before its invention. The joke relies on anachronism—treating the impossibility as amusing rather than logical. The advertisement emphasizes Coca-Cola's purity through "twenty-two scientific tests" and notes the staggering consumption figure of "8 million a day," attempting to validate the product through both scientific authority and mass popularity. This represents early 20th-century advertising strategy: leveraging cultural prestige (Shakespeare) and pseudo-scientific claims to build brand credibility.