We all know him and just about all of us love him, whether or not we’ve ever purchased his tires, but how much do we really know about the Michelin Man?
I hadn’t given him much thought until my wife pointed out that the Michelin tires I bought a few months back had the Michelin Man right on the sidewall. Then, just a few weeks ago, there was an article about him in Fortune Magazine, so I just had to read it.
His name his Bibendum, which is a Latin gerundive which means, "Drinking to be done." To understand why they gave him a name synonymous with drinking, you must remember that 107 years ago, only wealthy well-to-do’s could afford cars and drinking and driving wasn’t really frowned upon yet.
Though he has become such a lasting icon, Bibendum came from pretty simple beginnings. Bibendum first came to the mind of Edouard Michelin when he and his brother Andres were at an auto expo in Lyon in 1894 and Edouard commented that some stacks of tires in a row looked like a line-up of tire men...all you had to do was add the arms.
It was just four years later in 1898 that Bibendum appeared in his first Michelin ad, a poster that depicted him as being so tough that he was eating broken glass.
Later in 1898, Bibendum was depicted as having just triumphed over two other tire men in a fight who looked notably like John Boyd Dunlop and the then-chief of Continental Tire.
Bibendum as a mascot made his debut in Paris in 1898 as well when an actor was paid to stand behind a cardboard cut-out of Bibendum at a cycle show to entertain the show’s patrons.
Bibendum was so popular an attraction at the show that Michelin’s rivals started shoving patrons, trying to get them away from the Michelin exhibit, and police had to be called in to restrain them.
It might seem a little much, but early tire manufacturing was a very competitive business that in those days catered only to the folks who were affluent enough to be able to afford motorized, wheeled transportation.
The industry's competitiveness even sparked a series of Bibendum ads in the early 1900s that had him standing in triumph, sword-in-hand, over fields of battered and bloodied tire men, crying out for mercy.
Then, in 1914, we finally saw the makings of the Bibendum of today when he appeared in an ad as a middle-aged good samaritan driver, cigar-in-mouth, lending a fellow motorist his best tire from his mid-section.
Today, you can catch the Michelin Man at auto expos and trade shows. Due to the risk of liability in today’s world, the actor inside Bibendum is under strict instructions not to say anything. Bibendum will take a picture with you, but he won’t put his arm around you, and keep his hands visible in front of him at all times. They’ve kept his name, but you won’t see today’s Bibendum bibending anymore...
