Word: bibendum
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...good illustration was erected last year on the Stockholm waterfront. Massive, of polished rose granite, it shows little influence on Milles by his teacher Rodin. Two figures, a merman and his mermaid, intertwine in funny fat folds. She is doting; he, looking like the pneumatic Michelin Tire man ("Bibendum"), is highly amused...
Greatest of European tiremakers is Andre Michelin et Cie., which in 1929 for the first time in its history showed a deficit of 8,000,000 francs. But it would take more than that to shrink the grin on the rubber face of "Bibendum," famed Michelin trademark mannikin (see cut). Last week Bibendum's grin spread to the faces of 700 former employes of the Michelin plant in Milltown, N. J. Depressed business forced the closing of the plant three months ago. To the employes was due $700,000 from an accumulative yearly bonus which the company paid them under...
...Legend of Bibendum's conception: Some one saw a pile of tires heaped up in the Michelin factory at Clermont-Ferrand, France, and fancied a grotesque human resemblance. A cartoonist named O'Gallot was commissioned to make the pile of tires into a trademark. Soon along the highways of the world appeared the inflated figure of Bibendum, so called because he originally appeared holding a goblet of wine, and with the slogan Nunc est Bibendum ("The time has come to drink"). The blurbal application of the slogan was that Michelin tires "drank up" the shocks and bumps of travel...