Gaslight's marvelous Stephen Davies did some research on Bibendum, the Michelin Man, and the personal demon of Cayce, Pattern Recognition's heroine. Ad Age and the Corporate design foundation describe the dude's anthropomorphic origin, along with his Ganesh-like obstacle-clearing (well, -devouring).
...an advertising man, named O Galop, happened to show the brothers a sketch of a portly Bavarian holding up a beer mug and proclaiming "Nunc est bibendum!" (Now is the time to drink!). That linked the idea of a tire capable of "drinking" nails and other sharp objects.
Stephen's looking for a copy of the 1902 poster, where the Michelin Man fights a pair of dudes. Any Infocult readers have a line on one?
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