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Michelin Man's New Business Plan: Give Stars to Faraway Restaurants to Force Tire Sales
(thelemmy.club)
this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2026
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Yeah. I always assumed the name Michelin was just a coincidence. I was incredulous when I found out that it's the same company. Genuinely weird thing for a tire company to do.
Michelin also edited road maps and built milestones to help early time drivers find there way on the roads !
I miss the days when companies realized that improving everyone's lives meant they'd have more time and money to spend on their products
They did not start it for the reason in the comic. That is a complete fabrication.
It was an internal list of restaurants to wine and dine fine clients, and it was a massive success and many people who wanted to know where to take their own clients kept trying to find out about the Michelin list
I always knew because my parents had this book with the tire guy on it:
I don't remember if it mentioned restaurants in it as well, but the association with them and travel guides made the connection for me, I guess.
Nah that’s the green guide. It’s focused on sight seeing and cultural attractions.
The red guide is the restaurant one.
That's a cool looking booklet.
Nah, originally it was just a complementary map for those who bought tires. They ended up just being the most reputable reviewer with their star system that it became a prestige thing afterwards.
I mean, when you're a tire company and not a lot of people have cars or good reasons to put lots of miles on them...