Michelin - Bibendum - Advertising sign - Bibendum - Resin

Michelin Oompa, advertising object
Resin sculpture of Michelin
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 included in service stations as a form of advertising

Historical notes:

During the participation in the Universal and Colonial Exposition of Lyon in 1894, Édouard and André Michelin noticed a pile of tires, which 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 tall human figure holding a beer mug 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 pile seen years before; O’Galop thus transformed the original image into what would become Michelin’s symbol.

The first manifesto of 1898 depicted him toasting his miserable competitors with the phrase Nunc est bibendum, holding a glass full of dangerous nails and broken glass, while he says the phrase "C’est à dire: À votre santé. Le pneu Michelin boit l’obstacle" ("That is: to your health. The Michelin tire drinks obstacles"). [1] The implication was that Michelin tires would easily overcome road hazards unlike other tires.

Modern Bibendum, displayed at a fair in Taipei in 2008.
The company used this type of poster as a basis for many years, adding its latest products to the table 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 draft a newspaper column signed "Bibendum". In the 1920s, "Bibendum" was also the title of a periodical published by the company’s Italian subsidiary.[2]

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

The form of Bibendum has changed over the years, updating after World War II to align it with new advertising needs. O’Galop’s logo was based on bicycle tires, he wore pince-nez glasses with a cord and smoked a cigar. In the 70s and 80s, Bibendum was shown running, and in 1998, on its centennial, a reduced version became the company’s new logo. He had long since given up the cigar and the pince-nez. The slimming of the logo reflected the smaller, low-profile tires of modern cars and gave the character a friendlier, more approachable look.

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