Bibendum - Advertising sign - Resin

Michelin Man, promotional object
Resin Michelin sculpture
new with packaging

Tracked shipment
careful packaging
with foam protection

Michelin Man in resin, large size compared to gadgets that were given away with tire purchases
This was supplied to workshops as a form of advertising

Historical notes:

During their participation in the 1894 Universal and Colonial Exposition in Lyon, Édouard and André Michelin noticed a stack of tires that suggested to Édouard the figure of a man without arms. Four years later, in 1898, André met the French cartoonist Marius Rossillon, popularly known as O’Galop, who showed him an image he had created for a Munich brewery that had been rejected. It depicted a large human figure holding a beer glass and the phrase of Horace Nunc est bibendum ("Now is the time to drink"). André suggested replacing the man with a figure made of tires, similar to the stack seen years before; O’Galop then transformed the original image into what would become Michelin’s symbol.

The first 1898 manifesto depicted him toasting his miserable competitors with the phrase Nunc est bibendum, holding a glass full of dangerous nails and broken glass, while uttering the phrase "C’est à dire: À votre santé. Le pneu Michelin boit l’obstacle" ("That is: to your health. The Michelin tire drinks the obstacle"). The implication was that Michelin tires would easily overcome road hazards, unlike other tires.

Modern Bibendum version, exhibited at a fair in Taipei in 2008.
The company used this type of poster as a base for many years, adding its latest products to the display in front of the figure. It is not clear when the word "Bibendum" became the name of the character itself. In 1908 Michelin commissioned Curnonsky to write a newspaper column signed "Bibendum". In the 1920s, "Bibendum" was also the title of a periodical published by the Italian branch of the company.[2]

In 1922, Michelin organized a contest to "name the Michelin Tyre Man" in the United States.[3]

The shape of Bibendum has changed over the years, updating after World War II to align with new advertising needs. O’Galop’s logo was based on bicycle tires, wore pince-nez glasses with a cord, and smoked a cigar. In the 1970s and 1980s, Bibendum was shown running, and in 1998, on its hundredth anniversary, a reduced version became the company’s new logo. He had given up the cigar and the pince-nez many years earlier. The slimming of the logo reflected the smaller, low-profile tires of modern cars and gave the character a friendlier, more approachable aura.

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