pop & funWikipedia1894–1898 · Lyon, France

The Michelin Man was drawn from a rejected beer poster and a stack of tyres

the gist

The Michelin Man began as a stack of tyres. At the 1894 Lyon exposition, Édouard Michelin saw tyres piled up and imagined a figure without arms. Four years later, cartoonist Marius Rossillon, known as O'Galop, showed André Michelin a rejected poster for a Munich brewery: a large figure holding a huge glass of beer and quoting the Latin 'Nunc est bibendum', meaning 'now is the time for drinking'. André suggested replacing the man with a figure made of tyres, and the result was Bibendum. The 1898 poster showed him toasting rivals with a glass full of nails and broken glass, the message being that Michelin tyres absorb road hazards.

how it works

Carbon black, added to rubber in 1912, strengthens it and protects it from wear and sunlight, which is why tyres turned black. The mascot's colour was changed to match in some ads before the company dropped the change over printing and aesthetic problems.

so what

Bibendum is one of the most recognised trademarks in the world, and it turned a tyre's ability to survive hazards into a friendly figure. The poster format shows how early advertising used humour to demonstrate product strength.

fun fact

Rubber tyres were originally grey-white or beige and became black in 1912, after carbon was added to strengthen them.

more on this

Adapted from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Image: Wikimedia Commons