Personally, I’ve never exactly understood brand mascots. I mean, yes, I get what they are, but in fact I – like the child in our lede picture — have always been somewhat creeped out by mascots of any sort. Most troublesome are the somewhat threatening ones that get in your face with their big-headed…insistence. Whether you find mascots disturbing or compelling or something in between, they all represent attempts by their creators to make indelible impressions on consumer consciousness. Automotive mascots are no exception to this rule. Endearing or revolting, let’s take a look at the various unforgettable creatures that the automotive products industry has fielded throughout the years to shill and support their wares.
A good place to start in this mascot survey is with one of the oldest and I dare say – just to get this out of the way – most creepy. Michelin’s Bibendum at 129 is the oldest mascot we’re going to consider today.
Bibendum fits – and arguably created – the classic model of human/animal fantasy creature that seems to have arisen from the depths of an imagination that perhaps should not be explored too deeply. Michelin’s creation hails from the dark ages of product advertising seems and yet seems most closely related to sports team mascots in our modern world. I’m looking at you Philadelphia what with both Gritty and the Phanatic. As it’s said, the brown acid is not specifically too good. Good or not, it seems that something hallucinogenic was circulating in France in the late 19th century. A long strange trip indeed.
Bonus points if you can identify all of the still-common-to-this-day tire repair tools spread out before Bib.
In early ads, Bibendum’s claim to fame was that the tires he was composed of were said to “drink up” obstacles. Hence his name. “Nunc est bibendum” being “Now is the time to drink” in Latin. To modern sensibilities, this might seem like a questionable motto to affix to something related to driving; but in fact the Michelin brothers started with bicycle tires, so maybe being drunk and French and riding a bike in the 19th century conveyed something quite different than it does in 2023.
The conceit of the slogan and ad certainly does convey the image of a very different driving environment than today’s motorists might encounter. Note the horseshoe in Bibendum’s toasting glass. Obviously at the turn of the 20th century it was a common occurrence to dive over discarded horseshoes in the road…nails, and perhaps horse, and all.
You show ’em Bibendum, drink up as the clearly lesser brand X and Y pnues (tires) look on deflated.
Sadly, no one in this picture looks very comfortable. Certainly not Mr. and Mrs. Bibendum. But those people in the background also look skeptical, scared, or confused. “Is it post-war Europe yet? No? Another 40 years? Damn.”
As impressive as Michelin’s print ads featuring Bibendum were, the mascot seems to have been absolutely eye-catching when making live public appearances. Eye-catching in the way that the things of nightmares come to life might be. This, as we will see with other mascot examples is something of a mascot “feature” that product managers have a hard time resisting — i.e., suiting up their creations so as to scare the bejesus out of small children.
Fortunately, Bibendum has managed to become much friendlier over the years. He’s also not often referred to by his given name and instead is just called The Michelin Man. This not only reduces questions around the association of tires with drinking, but adds focus to the brand associated with the mascot. He is the brand’s man.
Or something. I’m still not entirely sure about the “man” part.
But I guess he’s as man-like as his sailor-suited close kin, the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man (who blessedly avoided ever acquiring a proper name like “Toasty” or “Uri” – Nunc Tempus Uri). For Bibendum, losing the head tires and lace-up shoes I think was a good move. He’s also benefited from the transition to wider, radial, tires. It’s a good look for him.
Having grounded this survey in the OG mascot, so old he practically predates automobiles, let’s take a look at those who followed in his product-supporting footsteps.
Automotive Services
One of the mascots that I strongly recall from my youth is the so-called “Happy Bear” from the Bear alignment and brake service shops. I originally assumed that the first one I saw as a young child in Baltimore was the only Bear alignment shop, a unique store. Eventually I learned that it was a national chain. This was about the same time I learned..despite what my mother insisted on telling me…that pizza wasn’t invented at the pizza shop down the block, Captain Kangaroo didn’t live at my local TV station, and that the Good Humor man drove down alleys all over the country in addition to mine.
In fact Bear is a brand of alignment tools/machines and has been in business for over 100 years. Currently, the brand is owned by a group called “The Cartek Group” that provides little consumer-facing information on their website. If anyone from Cartek (a private venture capital group…maybe that’s the problem) is reading this, you need an About Us or Our Story page. I mean, the nation’s second-most-famous advertising bear (about 20 years younger than Happy Bear) has his own website. I’m just saying.
Then of course, no one is buying an alignment rack or frame-straightening device for home use, so perhaps consumer info is not really necessary for Bear-Cartek. Regardless, the somewhat squatty but definitely gonzo happy bear is still visibly present on the website and on new Bear equipment. This makes the Happy Bear almost as old as Bibendum; and it has to be noted, much less scary. That’s a win.
Who are these guys?
Picture from https://www.flickr.com/people/55864565@N08/
If you guessed, that they’re the same as these guys, then you’re correct. Manny Rosenfeld, Moe Strauss, Moe Radavitz and Jack Jackson founded Pep Auto Supply in Philadelphia in 1921. They named the business after seeing the word “Pep” on a can of valve-grinding compound. By 1923, the fellows had changed the name of their business to “Pep Boys” after some vaguely-described interactions with the Philadelphia police and a visit to a “dress shop” in Los Angeles.
OK. I’m beginning to understand that if one spends enough time looking into the history of any business or mascot, they’re all a bit odd. Maybe that explains Cartek’s reticence to explain Happy Bear. (Oh…it’s not really a bear? I get it…)
Ultimately the Pep Boys proceeded to lose one of the Moes (Radavitz) and replaced Jack (with another Jack…Moe Strauss’ brother). This resulted in the three guys in the photo and their iconic cartoon representations on the sign. Aside from minor changes — Manny had to give up his cigar, at least in public appearances — the Pep Boys have looked pretty much the same for close to 100 years. The business is now owned by Icahn Enterprises, which owns along with Pep Boys a company that produces casings for hot dogs and that invented the skinless frankfurter. We’ll get back to that in a little bit.
That Turtle Wax Color Back might help with the top side of 80s mom’s (debadged) Caprice wagon, but likely she had some kind of protection for the rest of the car. In 1984, there’s a good chance that this would have been a preparation/preventative sold to her at the dealer.
What that might have been is Rusty Jones, or as Rusty himself said “The One New Car Option that Appreciates in Value”.
Or maybe, as personal experience informs, the only new car option that is put on the bill of sale after you think you’ve negotiated the as-delivered price of the car but that since it’s 8:50pm and the dealer is closing in 10 minutes and unfortunately the person who handles that part of the paperwork has gone home for the evening and there’s no time to change the paperwork if you want this car tonight (especially since your trade has already been de-tagged and driven into some lot waaaaaaaaaay behind the showroom) then you just pay for it.
Oh Rusty, you looked like such a friendly fellow.
I always suspected that Rusty was the same guy as, or at least close kin to, the original Brawny paper towel guy.
Perhaps Rusty was just trading on the family resemblance since despite the axe, I never felt pressured to buy paper towels when I didn’t need them. And that’s about all I can come up as far as a genealogy for Rusty Jones; although I will note that Rusty’s rust-proofing hustle came to a crashing end with bankruptcy in the late 1980s. This makes Rusty Jones one of the few mascots covered here who became homeless. The Brawny guy is still going strong with his paper products, although in the current century his axe and mustache have gone the way of Manny’s cigar.
The last “automotive services” mascot is the newest, assuming one considers 23 years old “new”.
This guy started appearing in 2000 for the Government Employees’ Insurance Company (GEICO). The story is that the idea of using a gecko as a mascot came up while the ad agency was brainstorming how to get customers to properly pronounce the name of the company. There’s some odd linguistic jiu jitsu happening there, but you can figure that out on your own. Also contributing to the ultimate choice of mascot was the 2000 screen actors’ guild strike. It was expedient, under the circumstances, to develop an animated character for a mascot.
Here I’ll note that several subsequent generations of TV viewers can thank that SAG strike for sparing us the sight of a human in a reptile costume pestering us about a product that most of drivers have to have but would mostly rather not think about; unless you live in New Hampshire or Virginia and then you can just get by through maintaining that you have “enough” money to take care of any accident you may cause (New Hampshire) or pay a fee that allows you to drive an uninsured vehicle (Virginia). Ironically, GEICO was originally established in the Washington, D.C. area – which of course includes Virginia – due to the area’s large concentration of federal employees.
Automotive Products
One of the fun things about the Sleepy Boy illustrations is observing the various ways that he’s about to set different things on fire with that candle of his. That little feller is smiling now, but only seconds later…
In this category, we’ll start with the oldest mascot in this list, and frankly one that is mostly defunct. Originally the mascot of The Fisk Rubber Company of Chicopee, Massachusetts, the “Time to Retire” boy started to receive wide-scale attention in the early 1930s.
Mind you, this was at a time when Sleepy Boy’s equivalent tire mascot across the pond was still smoking and drinking and no doubt continuing to scare and just generally bum-out children.
Apparently he’d also taken up boxing and/or pro-wrestling.
Well, it was a global depression after all and a sordid mess over there on the Continent. A scary tire guy had to do what he had to do. Nevertheless, the tiny feet – real shoes – still creep me out tremendously.
Meanwhile in Chicopee, Massachusetts USA, Fisk was leaning on the talents of no less wholesome an artist than Norman Rockwell. Unfortunately, it was mostly all for naught as the original Fisk Tire Company was largely defunct by the start of World War II. The brand was acquired by U.S. Rubber in 1940 and its tires were marketed as Uniroyal by the 1960s. Somewhere in there the tires stopped being made in Chicopee.
This left Chicopee to fall back on its other – some may say considerably longer lasting – fame as the Kielbasa Capital of Massachusetts.
I once lived not too far from Chicopee Provisions — the Kielbasa-werks — and can recall both the smells of smoking sausages in their regenerated cellulose casings (see, I told you we’d get back to that) and going down there more than once to pick up commercial orders for various kielbasa-related activities at my Western Massachusetts-based college. (Best not to ask) All of which was no doubt more pleasant than experiencing the smells of a tire factory which probably had no direct to the public sales.
But actually Fisk – or at least the Sleepy Boy — didn’t entirely go away. The Fisk brand starting in the 1950s began to do something that “brands” really aren’t supposed to do — that is to float around and become attached to different things. Fisk in the 1980s became the house-brand for KMart’s automotive products.
Oh look. A 1983 Mercury Colony Park!
Clearly, Kmart’s death spiral started much longer ago than its current demise (there are two remaining Kmart stores as of this writing…out of about 2400 at peak Kmart). The chain was grasping at straws well back into the 1980s. During which time, the appropriation of various brand names — as symbols of desired prosperity — was deemed a reasonable strategy for renewal. The Internet is somewhat sparse on images of Kmart products. Go figure.
There are a few, such as this oil filter. I recall the tires, automotive lighting products, and batteries.
Speaking of automotive lighting products, this brings us to S.E.V. Marchal.
Hailing from 1923, the Marchal company has had a long and storied history. Adopting an analogous approach to Fisk – where the mascot adapted to different products over time – the Marchal black cat has had different appearances in the 60+ years of the Marchal brand of automotive electrical products. At times, the kitty has been illustrated with close to photo realism.
At other times, the cat has appeared almost cartoon-like. This illustration, for Marchal spark plugs, is one of my favorites.
A BMW 2002 in an early 1970s Monte Carlo rally blasts through what seems to be a bunch of French guys standing at bus stop somewhere in the woods. Having perhaps grown up with the very scary Bibendum, they seem rather nonplussed, all things considered.
Of course, how many of us here may remember the Marchal chat noir is in relation to the driving lights that adorned rally cars of the 1970s.
And of course the kitty is CC contributor and resident automotive lighting expert Daniel Stern‘s avatar.
I would love a set of those Marchal lights. They’re beautiful, and most of them proudly carry an image of the Marchal cat. Perhaps I will get a set someday for the 1976 Volvo as sadly they just won’t attach to the modern BMW. To some extent this is appropriate since the Marchal brand merged with Cibié in 1978 and then large disappeared altogether via another merge with European parts supplier Valeo in 1980. Valeo is a brand that is constantly being given the side-eye in the BMW forums. Practically, Marchal and BMW is totally a bygone historical connection.
Not quite as old as the Marchal Cat, but just as charming (yeah, so I have soft spots for all of my household pets and their automotive brand mascot doppelgangers) is the Turtle Wax turtle.
This stuff was so dominant in my youth that I actually used the term “turtle wax” to refer to both the process of waxing a car as well as a proprietary eponym for any kind of car wax. I’m not sure where this came from, but it was indeed common parlance in my family to talk about “turtle waxing” the car.
The turtle wax bottle (the brand name was always written in lower case back in the old days, thereby leading me to believe that the words were a generic product name, or perhaps heaven forbid that turtles were an ingredient) when I was a kid was exactly like the one in the above picture. It seems that this “mod” bottle replaced a simple round bottle at some point in the early 1970s. The mod bottle as well as the earlier one were green glass. Green being the color of (some) turtles. Glass being what bottles ought to be made out of instead of planet/ocean-life killing plastic. Although it should be noted that plastic (not turtles) is one of the critical secret ingredients in the original formulation of turtle wax, or as it was originally called, Plastone.
At over 80 years old, the Turtle Wax company remains privately held with members of the original founder’s family still participating in the direction of the company. The green top-hatted turtle – sometimes known as “Tommy Turtle” — remains the brand mascot. Tommy now appears on many more products than Turtle Wax (it seems that the actual brand name is currently written with initial capital letters).
One of the things I discovered while researching the Turtle Wax turtle is that for over a decade a 34′ rotating turtle sculpture adorned the top of Chicago’s so-called Wendel-Flatiron Building. Turtle Wax was headquartered and manufactured in Chicago from its 1941 founding until 2016 (when production moved outside of the city). As is the way of giant illuminated landmarks – see Roanoke’s Mill Mountain Star, Birmingham’s Vulcan, Boston’s Old Hancock Building, Minneapolis’s Weather Ball and no doubt many other places – the turtle was lit different colors to indicate the weather forecast. The fact that the Star and the Vulcan were also lit different colors to commemorate local traffic fatalities is a whole other story that bears telling somewhere/sometime on CC, but let’s say that unlike his real-life slow-crossing relatives, Tommy the turtle wax turtle had nothing to do with traffic accidents.
Maybe some readers from the Chicago area can recall the giant turtle which dominated what was (of course) known as “Turtle Square” from 1956 until 1963. There are several articles about the turtle online, and strangely no one seems to really agree on the facts related to how come the turtle was removed or where it went afterward.
The triangle of Madison, Ashland, and Ogden in Chicago, 2023. Former location of the Wendel-Flatiron Building and a 34′ rotating, weather-telling, turtle brand mascot.
All we do know is that the replacement for the Flatiron Building and its weather-indicating topper was as uninspiring as nearly all these sorts of urban “improvements” tend to be. Today, Chicago seems to have a surplus of bare metal, twisted beam, sculptures. It once had the only 34′ rotating reptile sculpture that held a bottle of car wax.
So at this point, before diving into the rest of what’s turning out to be a much more massive survey than I’d originally imagined, let’s take a break. I’ll be back in a couple of days with Part 2, and more big-headed, sometimes creepy, and always memorable (to someone at least) dose of mascot fun.
All images of mascots are the respective copyright of their owners.
For 30 years, from the early ’40s until the start of the ’70s, Canadian Tire Corporation ran this character on the cover of their Spring & Summer and Fall & Winter catalogues. Like much advertising back then, the illustrated covers were very sexist and highly suggestive, why they never survived into the ’70s. And why CTC doesn’t mention them today, as part of their legacy.
Spring and Summer 1968.
Spring and Summer 1960.
Wow, what’s going on in that one? I’m not into either fishing or diving so not sure…
Those CTC seasonal catalogue covers were notorious for sure. Benny Hill-style camp, before Benny Hill!
As today, Canadian Tire markets heavily specifically to women and family, in their automotive services, and other merchandise. Talk about skeletons!
Spring and Summer 1955.
Yes, those covers are clearly out of step with modern times and current sensibilities; even though they were very much quite in-step with the sensibilities of their time. Times change. Good.
But what I think is the most egregious aspect of these things is that they and their googly-eyed protagonist really have no clear relation to the brand they are servicing. Sure, there’s a common theme of “the outdoors” (which is kind of a general theme for most of Canada, right?), but there’s not much else going there other than what was clearly intended as eye-catching imagery. Which, given the imagery, makes this total cheesecake.
Good riddance. There’s other places (nowadays at least…and maybe not so much back then, so that’s potentially a point) to see that if that’s what one wants.
In 1958, Canadian Tire introduced their own currency. And in 1961, they brought out ‘Sandy McTire’, representing the frugal Scotsman stereotype. McTire, perhaps inspired by the silver-haired character from their catalogue covers.
Well, they did a pretty good job there with the currency. I particularly like 10 cent note with the tire with the face on it. Almost as good-looking as the real stuff!
Better detail. Apparently, their store money, featured all the same anti-counterfeit features, as regular national currencies.
Sandy McTire.
I’m pretty sure Canadian Tire Bucks or CT Money or whatever they call it now is still a thing. I didn’t realize how much it resembled real currency though.
The Canadian Bank Note Company, HQed here in Ottawa, prints Canadian Tire money. They also print paper Canadian currency, and paper currency for a number of other countries. It is legit currency. A country could adopt it, if they chose.
Every now and then, there is a story in the news of some individual who has collected a massive collection of CTC money, and they are ready to spend!
GRRRREAT article!
Live axles created some peculiar live creatures, maybe not exactly brand mascots.
🙂 As you may be alluding to, one of the stated downfalls for the Esso tiger was a copyright infringement suit by Kellogg’s.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=95371&page=1
That whole thing went nowhere other than to draw attention to both mascots. And that may actually have been the whole point all along. Crafty and successful brands that both Kellogg’s and Exxon/Mobil are.
More tiger info coming in Part 2!
And
And scariest,
Yeah. I’ve got to imagine that ad didn’t do a whole lot to sell much of anything. Yikes.
How about the Midas muffler man. There are a few around southern CA that I know of and recently spotted one in Gas City, Indiana.
Further explanation in Part 2. But for the moment, I’ll just leave you with…
I love this article, and can’t wait for Part 2!
If you like commercial mascots, etc., definitely get a copy of the book shown below. It’s relatively new (2003 or so), and contains hundreds of mascot images. Mostly pictures, but it’s lots of fun to look through (there’s many copies for sale now on eBay). Not all are auto-related, though some are, and it’s just fun regardless.
I don’t have a copy of this book, but I’ve looked through it, and one of the few text sections discusses Bibendum, who’s probably the progenitor of the species. I recall the book noting that the original Bibendum was supposed to appear sophisticated – with spectacles, enjoying fancy drinks, etc. – similar to Mr. Peanut (also bespectacled, with tophat). It noted the current Michelin Man has become “infantilized,” which is certainly true if you think about it.
Also, being a Philadelphia native, I’m proud to be from the home of both Manny, Moe and Jack… and the Philly Phanatic. Regarding Pep Boys, when I was growing up, there were rumors that one of the Pep Boys founders lived in our neighborhood at one point, but I never found out the accuracy of that. Still, that illustrates how famous the characters were. After all, who cares where the founders of AutoZone are from?
And regarding the Phanatic, Yo! I love that thing. And it’s a mighty interesting contradiction how Philadelphia sports fans – widely known to be the roughest in the sports world – are fiercely defensive of the goofiest, plushiest, most nonsensical mascot of all time.
Thanks! I’ll definitely be picking up a copy of that book. I love this stuff.
“Infantilized”. Well, that sounds like some pretty darn rigorous criteria being applied to what amounts to being cartoons.
Which, I should note, is 100% up my philosophical and ideological alley.
Bring it on.
These are all awesome (alright, at some point I found the Geico gecko a little annoying), but it’s the first three for me! I have never thought that seeing the Michelin Man in person would be that terrifying, but within the context of this article, I’m now thinking about it.
And Happy Bear Alignment!! I used to love seeing those signs!
I’m also old enough to remember Rusty Jones being applied aftermarket to new cars. Our ’85 Renault Encore got that treatment.
Looking forward to the next installment!
I am very much in your camp regarding the GEICO gecko…which is why I don’t give him much space in this survey. I also don’t talk about Flo (although I have considerable respect for her, particularly after her profile in the NYT last month – https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/25/magazine/progressive-insurance-flo-stephanie-courtney.html ) or the other gecko wannabes (an emu? really?).
Hey, at least Doug drives a company Duster!
In the K-Mart pic with the 1983 Mercury Colony Park, that couple looks vaguely familiar…..????
anybody??
Donald and Ivana.
There is another photo of Donald with his daughter Ivanka in-front of another Kmart buying school supplies.
These are absolutely great!
It must have been an off (yet amazing) year for for what’s his name to shop at K-Mart.
LOL!!
Must have been taken after a bankruptcy.
Bibendum never looked creepy to me, but I do continue to confuse him with the Pillsbury Dough Boy. The things Bib is made of don’t look at all like modern tires, except maybe bicycle tires (does Michelin make those?). Also, a Bib Gourmand is what the Michelin Guide awards restaurants whose food is priced lower than those that are contemplated for being awarded Michelin stars; its symbol is basically Bibendum’s face sticking his tongue out.
Never heard of Fisk before but am happy to learn the Fisk Time-to-Retire Boy was once a thing. And not surprised its last gasp was as a K Mart house brand; Kmart seemed to be where old brands go to die. I remember them selling Curtis Mathes TVs about 20 years ago, which is long after that manufacturer of expensive (but “darn well worth it!”) televisions ceased to exist in any recognizable form. A few years after that I saw TVs in Kmart branded White-Westinghouse. They were really grasping at straws there – the real White-Westinghouse was already a cast-off brand from about 1974 when Westinghouse sold their appliance division to White Consolidated Industries, the same company that would buy GM’s, AMC’s, and Studebaker’s appliance divisions. Westinghouse wouldn’t allow White to use their brand name and logo though, so they agreed to allow White to rebrand their new appliance line as White-Westinghouse. In the late ’80s White itself was bought by Electrolux which had stronger brands in its portfolio so White-Westinghouse was phased out in the late ’90s. W-W never made or sold TV sets, so that name and logo showing up on Kmart TVs seemed particularly odd.
Michelin certainly makes bicycle and motorcycle tires, but I think the design was intended to suggest inner tubes, which were the real novelty in those days when solid tires were still fitted to slower or heavy duty vehicles. Its odd that Bibendum never added a steel belt around his waist, to his costume.
Inner tubes! Of course! It just never occurred to me that’s what they were, because I’m too young to remember when automobile tires used inner tubes. For my entire life inner tubes have been pool floats, not a part of a car; I never even really associated them with tires (other than for large trucks and bicycles where they were still in use, at least a few decades ago).
For some reason, I’m old enough to recall when it was still noted that certain tires were “tubeless”…and I even recall this being noted on the side of the tire. (I didn’t think I was all that old, sheesh)
I also recall having at least once purchased and had installed an inner tube for some car tire that was either damaged and wouldn’t hold air or (more likely) that the wheel was damaged and a good bead could not be established. Neither scenario seems particularly reputable in retrospect, but at the time it was the cheapest way to go…and “cheapest way to go” has counted for an awful lot at times.
Anyhow, yes, I do think that Bib is mostly constructed of inner tubes….which most people for most of his modern life have thought of as tires.
I’m pretty sure all tubeless tires need to still be labelled “TUBELESS” (or at least TL) in the U.S. at least to this day.
Inner tubes??? They’d have to have some measure of air pressure, or they’d be flat rings.
I assumed they were stacks of various-diameter tires ranging from baby-carriage to motorized truck tires. An early mascot from the early days of automobiles/bicycles prior to the introduction of Carbon Black in the rubber. They’d have some resistance to flattening like a stack of inner tubes due to the fabric-reinforced construction and thicker, more-sturdy construction.
The tires were more-or-less white/light grey of the latex; and decidedly narrow.
This would not explain the lack of discernable tread patterns on Bibendum’s carcasses, though.
I will never complain about dressing up in that Chuck E Cheese mouse suit for birthday parties ever again.
Hummmmm. You must have been a very successful Chuck E as usually in any such photo, there’s at least one kid who’s about ready to jump out of his skin due to being made to stand next to the giant creature.
I thought I’d remembered having Fisk tires on one of the junk Volvo 240s that I bought while running my Volvo parts side hustle in the early 2000s.
According to the Wikipedia article, the Fisk name was revived around 1996 for a “house brand” of tires sold exclusively at the Discount Tire chain. I’m not sure why they’d do that; it’s not like the Fisk name had any brand cachet left by 1996.
It would make total sense that there would have been Fisk tires on a beater 240 20 years ago. I removed aand replaced a set of something similar 20+ year old tires from the 245 I drove back from New Mexico a while back. There was no way I was driving 2000 miles on 20 year old tires that had apparently been purchased from KMart or some such place to begin with.
I too heard about the Fisk brand being revived by Discount. To check that out for this article, I went to Discount’s website and pulled down their brand selector…which lo and behold listed “Fisk”. Unfortunately, there are zero tires in Discount’s inventory in the Fisk brand. So, I’m guessing that that revival didn’t last too long.
I/m going to drink Acme Beer so that I can look like this guy.
I’m guessing that they didn’t sell a lot of beer with that ad. But that was hardly the point.
On the other hand, Bibendum might could use some inspiration.
Here is some encouragement…
Anybody want to buy vegetables from Cousin Elmer?
Let’s try the encouragement again…
I grew up in Chicopee and we used to go to the Uniroyal factory store. Once in a while. they didn’t sell tires, but they sold Chuck Taylor’s and strange plastic windbreakers. Chicopee provision is going through some rough times. They had a flood and a fire at the factory. I think they’re back up in production now as of December 2023.
Chuck Taylors? Now that’s something I want to hear more about!
I recently (reluctantly due to lack of time) bypassed an exhibit about Chuck Taylor (hopefully featuring the shoes) at the Indiana Historical Society in Indianapolis. Perhaps there would have been a Chicopee connection as well!
https://indianahistory.org/events/chuck-taylor-all-star/
How about the Hastings Piston Ring guy?
https://phil-are-go.blogspot.com/2012/07/hastings-piston-rings-ring-around.html
Oh, that’s a good one! I forgot about him. I think I last saw him decades ago on some kind of oil treatment. I could be wrong about that.
I also have never quite been able to figure out what if anything was implied by his style of dress. To me, it always looked like he was dressed as a convict. So tough, he’s doing 20 to life in the Big House?
“Tough.. but oh so gentle”
The Hastings guy has been modernized a bit. What used to look like an old time convict shirt has turned into more of a rugby shirt with one white stripe and solid color arms. The multiple face lines are gone, etc. On the boxes he’s been reduced to a cameo appearance.
They still make excellent piston rings too.
I love Marchal Cat and it’s racing pedigree!
Valeo (which began as Ferodo) bought the Cibié and SEV Marchal companies in the 1970s; I don’t recall in which order or what specific years. They carried on making and selling new Cibié and Marchal lighting and electrical parts—as well as a bunch of other brands of them, including Ducellier; Elma; Frankani; Kinby-FAESSA; Neiman; PASA; Seima, and Signalvision—through the late ’80s/early-’90s, when they aggressively consolidated the product lines, axing all but the cheapest-to-build one of whatever was at hand (particular size-shape of fog lamp, driving lamp, headlamp, etc) and phased out those brands in favour of just Valeo on everything. SEV, BTW, was for “Société Étienne-Victor”, which means “The Stephen & Victor Company”.
Valeo squandered the storied Marchal and Cibié brands’ deep reservoirs of brand recognition and equity. Eventually they relegated Marchal to a cheap line of discount-store wiper blades, and they also sold a usage licence to a dubious outfit in Japan, who now slap it on some of the nastiest headlite-shaped trinkets to come out of a part of the world known more for cheap than good.
Eeeeeyeah, that’s the forums: a thick, fœtid mat of baseless certitude veneered over ignorant, childish proxy-nationalistic bilge. It’s a buncha fanboi types, very certain of themselves as they spout dumb crap in service to their prejudices and preferences, untethered to reality. Ewwwwww, don’t get smelly ol’ yucky ol’ inferior ol’ poopy ol’ Valeo headlamps, insist on real German ones made by Bosch or AL, or at least Austrian ones from ZKW! Never mind that BMW have bought bazillions of Euros and Deutschemarks and Francs worth of parts from Valeo over many years; never mind that the actual, real differences are almost always minimal to none between the Valeo-made and the ZKW-made (or Hella, AL, etc) headlamp (or whatever) for a given year-make-model of BMW; never mind that BMW are the ones determining and controlling the levels of quality, performance, and durability of the parts they buy from their many suppliers (and often those levels are more in accord with cost targets than with fanboi notions of vast BMW superiority); never mind that the historically-German or Austrian-brand lamp might well have been made in Mexico or India or China or Roumania or Czechia—nope, none of that matters, because DEUTSCHLAND, DEUTSCHLAND ÜBER ALLES and stuff.
There are specific-part cases where the one from [brand1] is better or worse than the one from [brand2] in some specific way, but that’s all, and they don’t run systematically in favour of (or against) any particular supplier.
re. the parts, I will say that I take all of that ” this brand versus that brand” stuff with a whole shaker of salt. Particularly silly are the debates about how the quality of some bit (cooling system hoses and flanges seem always ripe for this) has been “ruined” now that the part is made in say Romania versus Austria.
My feeling on that is that so long as I buy the part from a reputable reseller that has a good return policy – so that I can return things that obviously don’t fit or break prematurely – than I’m good. I honestly am not an expert on Romanian versus Austrian manufacturing culture…and neither is some random dude on the Internet.
My last set of Michelins was made in Romania and are the best and longest-lasting tires I’ve ever owned. Nokian is currently opening a new tire plant in Romania to replace their big Russian plant they had to close.
My father was a Bear Distributor and we had all sorts of Bear items around, still have some in fact. In the later years their biggest moneymaker by far were “smog machines”, new regulations came out every few years, and hence the need for new machines, and thus new sales on a regular cycle. With the widespread adoption of “test-via-computer” for newer cars, I imagine that business has dried up substantially, hence Bear appears to have entered investment firm bingo.
Their arch-rival, Sun Test Equipment, had a name “Sun” that begged for a similarly anthropomorphic logo, but such was never the case that I am aware of, the closest they came was the words “Sun” inside a stylized sun.
Hastings Pistons rings – great product!
Bear Rep, not distributor per se.
Indeed. No mascot but I agree that there should have been.
Still, I had to have this when I found it “For Free” on the side of the road. Makes a great tool trolley and fits in perfectly for obvious reasons in my garage 🙂
We had one of those rolling Sun test meters in our high school and university auto shops, and many service stations had them (some seeminly left unused in a back corner of the garage by that time).
Sun is still very much around it seems, at least across the big pond, though bought out by Snap-On in the ’90s where it continues as a division.
https://eu.sun-workshopsolutions.com/en
Sun was the arch-rival to Bear?
Yes, they did have competing products in the automotive tune-up/diagnosis/emissions testing category.
OTOH, Bear’s chassis line–alignment racks, wheel balancers, tire machines–were competing against another company.
Hunter.
I was trying to remember “the other guys”, but my mind went blank.
That’s a cool logo for Hunter!
Yes when my Dad was in the business the big $$ was in the smog machines, that was a Sun vs Bear thing.
I leaner how to do front end alignments on a Hunter Line-A-Lite! Worked pretty good too.
Ditto, only problem was at on location I used have to close the west facing garage doors in the afternoon.
Too bright to be able to see the lights.
I remember that from the Hunter Lite-a-line wheel alignment machines. It’s been 40 years but I reckon I could still use one.
Great work Jeff! Many (most) are all new to me, that includes the Bibendum ‘terror clowns’ of yore. Geez! I only know them as happy campers, sitting on a truck cab, waving friendly to all other road users.
I thought I was the only one who found the Michelin Man scary in the 1950’s .
All of these corporate logos / mascots are great and they could / should take a gander and make a few changes .
BEAR alignment shops are still out there, I know one I trust and use in So. Cal. ,
-Nate