Marketing Michelin

Book excerpt: Harp uses the familiar figure of Bibendum and the promotional campaigns designed around him to analyze the cultural assumptions of "belle-epoque" France, including representations of gender, race and class. He also considers Michelin's efforts to promote automobile tourism in France and Europe through its famous "Red Guide" (first introduced in 1900), noting that, in the aftermath of World War I, the company sold tour guides to the battlefields of the Western Front and favourably positioned France's participation in the war as purely defensive and unavoidable. Throughout this period, the company successfully identified the name of Michelin with many aspects of French society, from cuisine and local culture to nationalism and colonialism.