Who really is The Michelin Man???

The 1898 poster showed him offering the toast Nunc est bibendum ("Cheers!" or "Now is the time to drink" in Latin) to his scrawny competitors with a glass full of road hazards, with the title and the tag "'C'est à dire: À votre santé'. Le pneu Michelin boit l'obstacle" (That is to say, to your health': The Michelin tyre drinks up obstacles).

It is unclear when the word "Bibendum" came to be the name of the character himself. At the latest, it was in 1908, when Michelin commissioned Curnonsky to write a newspaper column signed "Bibendum".



His shape has changed over the years. O'Galop's logo was based on bicycle tyres, and wore glasses and smoked a cigar. By the 1980s Bibendum was being shown as a running Bib, and in 1998, his 100th anniversary, a slimmed-down version became the company's new logo; his vision had improved, and he had long since given up smoking.


The slimming of the logo reflected both lower-profile, smaller tyres on sport compact automobiles and a more athletic, slimmer, and trimmer Bib.



Today, Bibendum is one of the world's most recognized trademarks, representing Michelin in over 150 countries. Here my lovely volunteer so graciously posed with this "Michelin Sign" using the new 3D Michelin Man aka. "Bibendum..."


This last photo...Posted for: Shutterday/ Signs