Life — June 28, 1929 — page 3: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis This is primarily **advertising, not satire or editorial content**. It's a Mohawks tire advertisement from The Mohawk Rubber Company (Akron, Ohio) that appeared in Life magazine. The ad uses a clever analogy: just as human shoulders absorb impact by flexing at the knees, the tire's 252 "buttressed shoulders" (reinforced sidewalls) absorb road shocks through the tire's 6-ply walls. The ad emphasizes technical features—the buttressed design, 15% lower air pressure requirement, and improved traction—as marks of quality. The headline "Putting 252 Shoulders to the Wheel" is a pun on the idiom "putting your shoulder to the wheel" (meaning hard work). There's no political or social satire here; this is straightforward product marketing highlighting tire engineering innovations.