Michelin Man

A humanoid figure consisting of stacked white tires, it was introduced at the Lyon Exhibition of 1894 where the Michelin brothers had a stand.

As automobiles became available to the middle classes, the company's advertising followed suit, and its restaurant and hotel guides expanded to a broader range of price categories.

Four years later, André met French cartoonist Marius Rossillon, popularly known as O'Galop, who showed him a rejected image he had created for a Munich brewery[6] — a large, regal figure holding a huge glass of beer and quoting Horace's phrase Nunc est bibendum ("Now is the time for drinking").

[7] André immediately suggested replacing the man with a figure made from tires, and O'Galop adapted the earlier image into Michelin's symbol.

[citation needed] The image of the plump tire-man is sometimes used to describe an obese person, or someone wearing comically bulky clothing (e.g. "How can I wrap up warmly without looking like the Michelin Man?").

In 1998, his 100th anniversary, a slimmed-down version of him (sans glasses) was adopted, reflecting the lower-profile, smaller tires of modern cars.

[17] Cayce Pollard, the main character of William Gibson's novel Pattern Recognition, has a strong aversion to corporate brands and logos.

The mascot appears in a BBC Not the Nine O'Clock News comedy sketch, in which a restaurant waiter, and chef suspect a diner, dressed as Bibendum, might be a food critic for the Michelin Guide.

[26] In the French dubbed version of Ghostbusters, the giant Stay Puft Marshmallow Man is named "Bibendum Chamallow".

The reasons behind this involve an officer candidate who was sent to Turkey for a commemoration of World War One, and told to bring back a meaningful souvenir, but after heavy alcohol consumption instead stole the Michelin Man from the local garage.