Page 52 - 90 Years of Harper's Tire

A few years after filing its first patent for a detachable tire, Michelin introduced a poster of Bibendum, the Michelin Man. Bib, for short, gets his name from the Latin phrase “Nunc est Bibendum” which means “Now is the time to drink.” In the 1898 poster, Bib is holding a goblet filled with broken glass and other hazards. Beneath him the copy reads: “The Michelin tire drinks up obstacles.”