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This iconic image is a vintage Michelin advertisement from 1926, created to promote the "Confort-Bibendum" low-pressure tire.
Poster Details
Artist: While many early Michelin posters were created by Marius Roussillon (under the pseudonym O'Galop), specific listings for this 1926 design often attribute it to the Michelin design studio or describe it as a lithograph printed by Bédos et Cie in Paris.
Subject: It features the brand's mascot, Bibendum (the Michelin Man), running through an industrial cityscape while wearing a Michelin "Confort" tire around his torso.
Significance: This era marked a transition for the mascot. In the 1920s, Bibendum’s image was refined to be more family-friendly and active, losing the upper-class accessories like cigars and monocles seen in earlier designs to appeal to a broader growing middle class.
About Bibendum
The character's official name, Bibendum, comes from the Latin phrase "Nunc est bibendum" ("Now is the time to drink"), which appeared on the very first Michelin poster in 1898. The slogan originally meant that Michelin tires "drink up" obstacles and debris on the road. |
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