Bibendum

A poster by "O'Galop" of Bidendum, the Michelin Man

Bibendum

For the restaurant of the same name, see Michelin House

Bibendum, commonly referred to as the Michelin Man, is the symbol of the Michelin tyre company. Introduced at the Lyon Exhibition of 1894 where the Michelin brothers had a stand,^[1] Bibendum is one of the world's oldest trademarks. The slogan Nunc est bibendum (Now is the time to drink) is taken from Horace's Odes (book I, ode xxxvii, line 1). He is also referred to as Bib or Bibelobis.^[2]

While attending the Universal and Colonial Exposition in Lyon in 1894, Edouard and André Michelin noticed a stack of tires that suggested to Edouard the figure of a man without arms. Four years later, André met French cartoonist Marius Rossillon, popularly known as O'Galop, who showed him a rejected image he had created for Munich brewery—a large, regal figure holding a huge glass of beer and quoting Horace's phrase "Nunc est bibendum". André immediately suggested replacing the man with a figure made from tires. Thus O'Galop transformed the earlier image into Michelin's symbol. Today, Bibendum is one of the world's most recognised trademarks, representing Michelin in over 150 countries.

The 1898 poster showed him offering the toast Nunc est bibendum!!.. 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 tire drinks up obstacles"). The implication is that Michelin tires will easily take on road hazards. The company used this basic poster format for fifteen years, adding its latest products to the table in front of the figure. 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".

Since 1912, tires have taken on a black appearance because carbon is added as a preservative and strengthener to the base rubber material. Before then, tires took on a gray-white or light, translucent beige colour. This helps explain why Bibendum is white, though modern tires are black.^[3]

The name of the plump tire-man has entered the language to describe someone obese or wearing comically bulky clothing. (e.g. "How can I wrap up warm without looking like the Michelin Man?")^[4]

In Spanish, michelín^[5] has acquired the meaning of the "spare tire", or folds of fatty skin around the waist.

Bibendum's shape has changed over the years. O'Galop's logo was based on bicycle tires, wore pince-nez glasses with lanyard, and smoked a cigar. By the 1980s, Bibendum was being shown running, and in 1998, his 100th anniversary, a slimmed-down version became the company's new logo. He had long since given up the cigar and pince-nez. The slimming of the logo reflected lower-profile, smaller tires of modern cars. Bib even had a similar-looking puppy as a companion when the duo were CGI animated for recent American television advertisements.

A history of the emblem was written by Olivier Darmon and published in 1997: Le grand siècle de Bibendum; Paris: Hoëbeke.^[6]

Unofficial representations

Bibendum made a brief guest appearance in the Asterix series, as the chariot-wheel dealer in certain translations, including the English one, of Asterix in Switzerland. (The original French version used the Gaulish warrior mascot of French service-station company Antar.) The image also plays a key role in William Gibson's novel Pattern Recognition. Michelin sued the performance artist Momus for releasing a song about the trademarked Michelin Man.

French reggae band Tryo have sung about Bibendum on their album Grain De Sable. 'Monsieur Bibendum, il est vraiment énorme / Monsieur Bibendum, le bonheur en personne' ('Mr Bibendum, he is truly enormous, Mr Bibendum; happiness in person').

In the 2009 animated, Academy Award-winning satire Logorama, a series of Bibendi play police detectives, a sheriff, and a squad of SWAT personnel who all work together to try to bring down a psychotic, ultraviolent criminal played by Ronald McDonald.

In the media

Cayce Pollard, the main character of William Gibson's Pattern Recognition, has an aversion to corporate brands and logos, Bibendum in particular.

References

1. ^ "L'Aimable Mons. Bibendum or Quelques Precisions sur le Guide Michelin". The Motor nbr 3503: Page 41. 9 August 1969. 
2. ^ Michelin Corporate - Bibendum, the Michelin man, the living tire
3. ^ Michelin Man: The Inside Story
4. ^ Brodkin, Jon (2006-10-06). "Kenny has a big pair of gloves to fill on Ireland's twin mission". The Guardian (London). http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,1888830,00.html. Retrieved 2010-05-12. 
5. ^ Diccionario de la Real Academia Española.
6. ^ Also in English and German: One Hundred Years of Michelin Man; translated from the French by Bernard Besserglik; Paris: Hoëbeke, 1997; Michelin Man: 100 years of Bibendum; London: Conran Octopus, 1998.--Bibendum: ein Jahrhundert Geschichte; aus dem Französischen von Herta Luise Ott.

External links

Media related to Bibendum at Wikimedia Commons

• (French) Bibimage.com, Unofficial site dedicated to Bibendum.