Bibendum (The Michelin Man)

[pangea-tongue.livejournal.com]

Bibendum, The Michelin Man





"The holy Michelin tire drinks the obstacle!" Sorry if my translation is not perfect, but that seems to be the gist of it.. (Notice tire X and tire Y in the background. They look so pitiful and withered in comparison.)







"The best. The least expensive Michelin bicycle tires." (Oh my god, he's tearing himself a part for customer satisfaction. It's like Adam's rib! But not really.)



"The Michelin Confort Cable improves the road"













 

Comments

[misstia]

these are great! i never knew the michelin man was around for that long! and the one where he's pulling out a tire for the family is rather twisted....

[inkyblue2.livejournal.com]

"now is the time for drinking!
which is to say:
to your health! the michelin tire drinks the obstacle."

both "nunc est bibendum" and "a votre sante" are kind of like saying "cheers!"

[pangea-tongue.livejournal.com]

OH great, thank you! I never realized that and had been getting completely baffled. I never said my French was good.

[inkyblue2.livejournal.com]

btw, nunc est bibendum is latin and i totally had to google it. ;)

[pangea-tongue.livejournal.com]

No wonder I didn't recognize it as French! HAHAHA! How funny!

[deathbykleenex.livejournal.com]

And here I was wondering why I COULD understand it... :)

[janenx01.livejournal.com]

I never realized the Michelin man was made out of tires until I saw him offering up his guts to the stranded family. You learn something new every day.

Great post!

[reid.livejournal.com]

what? what did you think he was?

[janenx01.livejournal.com]

I guess I'd never put any serious thought into the Michelin man at all. He was just a lumpy guy selling tires!

[pangea-tongue.livejournal.com]

When I was a kid, I was certain he was the uncle of the Stay Puft marshmallow man (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stay-Puft_Marshmallow_Man)!

[janenx01.livejournal.com]

Choose the form of the Destructor!!

[tvini.livejournal.com]

Ditto that, exactly. This post provoked a lightbulb moment for me.

[snailmail914.livejournal.com]

I also did not know this!

Totally rockin!

[badgerpdx.livejournal.com]

In the late 40's I believe, Michelin rescued Citroen from bankruptcy...The Citroen DS (1955-75) was designed to run on Michelin "X" tires (The tire on the right, second ad from the bottom). These are COMPLETELY wonderful...Thanks for posting it.

Re: Totally rockin!

[pangea-tongue.livejournal.com]

That is really great information, thanks!

[willowind76.livejournal.com]

"why, no, PLEASE take pieces of mai, I won't be needin' em!

[stothechizo.livejournal.com]

i don't understand what it says in the first ad, but it is rather terrifying.

[murakozi.livejournal.com]

I'm glad I'm not the only one that found it disturbing.

[nokomarie.livejournal.com]

More like Never too Wet it is said, "To our health the tire Michelin takes the obstacle."

Guess you kind'a had to be there to find that a swinging phrase but the obstacle was a giant toast glass drunk off as a sort of challenge, thus, Never too Wet.

[pangea-tongue.livejournal.com]

It's all becoming more and more clear! haha

[death-worm.livejournal.com]

I never realized that the Michelin man was so old, or that he had a name.

[murakozi.livejournal.com]

Is he wearing lipstick in #2?



I think I prefer the more recent 'cuter' Bibendum of the past few decades.

#4 and #5: Here, rip out my entrails and put them on your wheels!

[pangea-tongue.livejournal.com]

He must just grow them back like a lizard's tail...or once you remove one, another just pops in and takes it's place, like rows of shark's teeth.

[tvini.livejournal.com]

That's how the company keeps down costs. They keep the Michelin man locked in a cage and pull tires off of him to sell. It's brutal.

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

One of the few generous product spokesmen that gave of himself, yet wasn't some kind of meat. If you know what I mean.

[carol215.livejournal.com]

Where is the cigar in the newer ads?

[pangea-tongue.livejournal.com]

He's definitely missing an accessory or two.
I love how he began wearing pince nez. Then he went to glasses, now nothing? I wonder if he fell for that trendy laser eye surgery. Perhaps he quit smoking...too many health problems. I mean just look at the guy!

[tvini.livejournal.com]

Tire fires do generate a lot of smoke.