Imperial Valley Press

CONTEST TO NAME MICHELIN TIRE MAN STARTS

Valley Auto Supply company, the local Michelin tire dealer is very enthusiastic these days over the nation wide contest now being conducted by the Michelin Tire company offering $1,000 in cash and sixty-five other prizes for securing a suitable name for the interesting tire man which has been a feature of Michelin advertising for many years, and whose antics have amused countless thousands of people.

It seems this tire man already has a name, but the Michelin company feels the name is not exactly suitable because it is not a name easily understood or remembered, in short the Michelin man is known as Bibendum but while Bibendum is a good name in some countries, it is hardly suitable for American use.

The story about the original naming of the Michelin man takes the reader back to France where the modern pneumatic tire had its birth-place in the Michelin works at Clermont-Ferrand a city of 70,000 busy people away up in the mountains in the south central part of the great republic beyond the seas. The story goes that the Michelin man was developed from a crude idea suggested by a workman in the Michelin factory, This workman noticed that a pile of tires, carelessly assembled bore a rude resemblance to a man He mentioned this to a member of the advertising staff, who later developed the idea, using tires of different sizes. The services of the celebrated French cartoonist O'Gallot were then called in. and soon the Michelin Tire man became a reality.

After selecting a name and phrase the contestant simply mails them to the Michelin factory at Milltown, New Jersey. sometime between March 1st and March 25th. The contest closes on March 25th and names sent in after that date will not be considered.

Of course the would-be contestant should first learn all he can about Michelin tires and the Michelin man before he starts cudgeling his brains for a name and phrase. To help him the company has provided the Valley Auto Supply, the local Michelin dealer with circulars telling all about the house of Michelin.