Life, 1928-12-14 · page 47 of 48
Life — December 14, 1928 — page 47: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a **Packard automobile advertisement**, not political satire. The page uses aspirational messaging to market luxury cars to wealthy consumers. The top photograph shows well-dressed people examining fabric swatches, visually establishing that Packard owners are discriminating elites with refined taste. The accompanying text repeatedly emphasizes exclusivity: Packard selects "only the best," appeals to "connoisseurs," and serves "the world's most discriminating clientele." The bottom shows a sleek 1920s-era Packard automobile—a prestigious, high-end vehicle brand. The advertisement's strategy equates car ownership with artistic refinement and social status. It positions Packard not merely as transportation but as a marker of taste and discernment, appealing to buyers' desire to signal wealth and cultural superiority through their automobile choice. This reflects early 20th-century luxury marketing that conflated product quality with owner status.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Each Packard is built to the exacting requirements of the world’s most discriminating clientele PACKAR Packard, like its patrons, demands and selects only the best the world provides. Discriminating taste, experience, exact knowledge and scientific equipment, combine to aid in the selection of the diverse materials which Packard crafts- manship finally molds into the modern miracle of luxurious transportation. There are artists in other fields than color, form and fabric. Packard has also AS K WHO its connoisseurs in steel, in bronze, in aluminum, in wood, in a score of other highly specialized departments. These men pick Packard materials with a fine appreciation of their responsibilities in upholding a priceless reputation. Fine workmanship demands and deserves the best of materials. In things unseen as in things seen, a Packard must measure up to the one standard of quality which Packard knows—the highest. OWNS comicbooks.com