Too Late

Toronto Globe, September 4, 1926

O breadwinner! Gather ye rosebuds, or ye insurance, while ye may!

This one’s a little ugly, as the implication is clear: if you’re old, sick, or in anything other than perfect health, your friendly life insurance company doesn’t want to know about you. (“I’m sorry, sir, our actuarial tables have written you off.”)

But what did you expect - that life insurance companies would act like benevolent charities? As somebody once put it: buying life insurance is like visiting a gambling casino. Except that, with insurance, you can only win by dying.

Note the morbid beauty of the artwork in this ad: the crosshatching conveys a sense of overwhelming gloom.

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