Life, 1929-02-01 · page 39 of 40
Life — February 1, 1929 — page 39: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a **General Motors advertisement**, not political satire. It promotes Fisher Body, GM's coachbuilding division, as the originator of superior automobile styling. The illustration shows two men examining a car—likely depicting Fisher designers or quality inspectors—to establish Fisher as the authority on automotive aesthetics. The ad's central claim is that Fisher Body styles dominate the market and are widely imitated, but Fisher always stays ahead through continuous design innovation. The text emphasizes that Fisher-bodied cars command higher resale prices and that multiple GM brands (Cadillac, Buick, Pontiac, Chevrolet, Oldsmobile, etc.) use Fisher bodies, positioning the company as essential to automotive prestige. For modern readers: this reflects 1920s-30s consumer culture where "styling" was becoming a major selling point, and companies aggressively marketed design leadership as justification for premium pricing. The ad essentially argues: buying Fisher means buying the trend-setter, not the imitator.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
isher 7 7 7 originator of the finer body styles GENERAL MOTORS. At every Automobile Show throughout America, there is plainly evident that positive pref- erence which leads thousands of men and women who demand the latest in authentic motor car style to select their automobiles from those cars with Body by Fisher. (Fisher and General Motors are so signally successful in creating new body styles, that CADILLAC . LA SALLE ¢ styles which are | followed almost as a matter of course these styles are dominant and desirable, almost as a matter of course, in every price division. (Naturally, these distinctive Fisher Body styles are copied. Style changes, however, require months before they can appear in other quarters. And, by the time the rest of the industry has caught up, Fisher designers have created still finer beauty. ( Men and women everywhere have BUICK , PONTIAC © CHEVROLET OAKLAND thus learned the wisdom of buy- ing cars which set the style— which are always in the lead— which heighten their pride of ownership and command ahigher price when the time comes for a resale. (That is one great reason why new thousands of car buyers annually are attracted to those cars (they are listed below) whose bodies are built by Fisher. OLDSMOBILE comicbooks.com