Bananas Read online

  In 1929 the Fruit Dispatch Company hired consultants to prepare a scientific market research brief that examined the current advertising campaign, interviewed consumers, and recommended future advertising emphases.34 The consultants surveyed 8,500 consumers and 1,741 retail dealers, and visited 341 institutions including tearooms, soda fountains, hospitals, boarding houses, restaurants, and clubs. The survey was conducted in twenty-eight cities of varying size in Massachusetts, Georgia, Ohio, and Iowa and included both suburban and farming communities in adjacent areas.

  Survey results indicated that the advertising emphasis on low price and the tropical origin of the banana should be revised, and that a new advertising campaign be directed at the middle class with emphasis on style, quality, and the health benefits of eating bananas. “This will not hurt the poor who now buy, but will actually influence the potential better-class market whose limit is far from reached.” In addition, the children’s market had still greater potential: “The work of the Educational and Medical departments of the United Fruit Company is now bearing fruit in the wholesale endorsement of ripe bananas for growing children by the medical profession.” The survey also found that there was a tendency for adults to stop eating bananas as they reached the age of forty or fifty, and recommended that this age group be encouraged to eat more bananas as a protective and vitalizing food.

  In response to the survey, the advertising budget for 1930 was doubled from that of 1929 and advertisements were placed in ten national magazines. The advertising campaign for 1930 included style and appetite appeal along with the news that bananas “are a delicious food that is good for something as well as good to eat.” The new campaign offered a banana book “brimful of useful recipes, menus, and serving suggestions prepared by nutrition experts. Send coupon for your copy. Be among the first to benefit by the new knowledge of the banana.” Sample advertising copy read as follows:

  Vitality in every bite of this Natural Food … that’s why bananas belong in the daily diet. A vital addition to the diet. That’s what nutrition experts are calling the banana. For this natural food-fruit abounds in important food materials. No fewer than three vitamins—for health and growth. Energy-building carbohydrates, too. And valuable stores of minerals, so necessary for body tone.… Add to all this a ripe banana’s quick, easy digestibility and fine, mellow flavor … its handiness to peel and eat anywhere, at any hour … its price—always an inviting one. Then you’ll see why prominent food authorities are now urging that bananas belong on every family table.35

  Breaking the connection to Latin America, The New Banana (New York: United Fruit, Fruit Dispatch Company, 1931).

  To appeal to middle-class consumers, 1930 advertising copy showed father in a business suit going off to work, two well-dressed women having lunch in a department store restaurant, and a woman being served breakfast in bed by a uniformed maid.

  The 1929 consumer survey found that households with children ate more bananas, so many of the marketing efforts in the following years targeted children. Marketing strategies provided materials to classroom teachers, including nutrition information, recipes, films, pictures to color, sheet music, maps, and geography lessons. Teach children to like bananas, and the children would ask mother for them and, in addition, grow up to serve bananas to their own families.

  The Fruit Dispatch Company pioneered industry-sponsored educational materials for public schools and in 1929 established a separate Education Department in addition to the Advertising Department.36 Corporate logos and advertisements in the classrooms in the 1990s are not new. Between 1930 and 1955, the Education Department produced more than thirty-five different printed educational materials for classroom use.

  Boy Scouts cooking bananas, About Bananas, Education Department (United Fruit, 1936).

  In 1939 United Fruit Company’s Home Economics Department produced a teacher’s manual with the title A Study of the Banana: Its Everyday Use and Food Value. The manual provided more detailed information for the teacher and included additional topics such as “suggested ways of preparing and serving bananas and ten simple meal-planning suggestions.”37 The manual covered the food value of the fruit, its germ-proof wrapper, and the importance of bananas to physicians in combating nutritional disorders. Bananas were presented as a “highly desirable” food for the elderly as well as a valuable addition to the diet of young children. A photograph of a classroom in Sublette, Kansas, dated April 1941, includes a poster on one wall that reads “Bananas and Milk: Good Teammates!”38

  In the 1950s a set of nine student lessons were available for varying grade levels with accompanying teacher worksheets plus three films for classroom use. The color film, “Journey to Bananaland,” was in such demand in 1954 that the number of prints was increased from 214 to 314.39 Between 1955 and 1962, nearly 15 million pieces of banana literature were published by United Fruit Company for students in the elementary grades through high school. These also were sent to schools around the world.40

  In 1962 United Fruit provided teachers with four-page student lesson sheets on bananas and the countries of Middle America, a folder of banana recipes, a wall chart, a sound motion picture, a filmstrip, and an eight-page teacher’s manual on how to get and use these aids. This material was recommended for geography, history, social studies, health and nutrition, elementary and general science and biology classes.41 The 1969 educational kit, marketed for the classroom at $4.00 apiece, contained thirty copies of the booklet “People Like Bananas,” a fifty-frame filmstrip with the title “The Musa Finds a Market,” plus an illustrated script, a complete teacher’s guide, and suggestions for related classroom activities.42

  United Fruit also sought to expand the market for bananas through the school lunchroom. In 1967 the company distributed 90,000 full-color illustrated recipe cards for Chiquita banana and peanut butter sandwiches to schools throughout the United States, promoting the sandwiches as a lunch-time treat.43

  Early United Fruit Company promotional efforts recommended banana consumption in general. Bananas were convenient, delicious, and nutritious, and United Fruit advertising often focused on the healthful aspects of the fruit, an important source of vitamins, minerals, and energy. By the 1940s, in the face of competition from other large fruit-import corporations, United Fruit came up with the notion of brand-name bananas. Identifying the importing agent by brand name promised quality and status and fit with similar marketing strategies for other packaged brand-name foods at the time.

  In 1944 United Fruit, planning ahead to the return of its ships to the Caribbean banana trade at the end of the war, hired Dik Browne (better known today as creator of the Hagar the Horrible cartoon strip) to create a cartoon character based on the Latin American singer and movie star of the 1930s and ’40s, Carmen Miranda.44 Chiquita Banana first appeared in a 1945 technicolor movie advertisement with the title “Miss Chiquita Banana’s Beauty Treatment,” in which she burst into song to revive an exhausted housewife. In it Chiquita advises, “You’ll find by eating fruit you’ll have a more beautiful appearance and complexion,” and “a daily dose of bananas will help you look perfection.”45

  Next, Chiquita became part of an educational campaign to promote two basic ideas: bananas taste better if eaten when their peels have brown or “sugar” spots; and bananas should be allowed to ripen at room temperature, “never in the refrigerator.” This was in the postwar era when many American households had a refrigerator for the first time.46 Chiquita wore a bowl of fruit on her head and her antirefrigeration calypso song, written by Garth Montgomery and Len MacKenzie, transcended advertising to become a popular hit recorded by musicians such as Patty Clayton, Xavier Cugat, and the King Sisters. The Chiquita jingle was so popular that it was played on the radio 376 times in one day, and Chiquita was named “the girl we’d most like to share a foxhole with” by American enlisted men.47 United Fruit even provided copies of the sheet music to schools to build “interest in bananas among many millions of future food purchasers.”48<
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  “Chiquita Banana” sheet music (Maxwell-Wirges Publications, 1945, printed 1950).

  Americans learned that bananas should “never” be stored in the refrigerator, despite the fact that the fruit was shipped under refrigeration and that home refrigeration, while blackening the skin, halts the ripening process so that bananas keep longer. It was a marketing success for United Fruit in that housewives believed that they had to use the bananas they bought more quickly than was actually necessary. The campaign was so successful that food writers for popular magazines repeated the caution.49 Many people in the United States continue to believe that they should never put their bananas in the refrigerator, despite occasional advice to the contrary.50

  United Fruit created the individual banana label in 1962.51 Small blue paper seals with a picture of Chiquita Banana were affixed to banana clusters in the tropics and United Fruit Company advertised heavily to create demand for brand-name bananas. This changed the business from that of selling a commodity to that of selling a branded, identifiable product.52 Chiquita-labeled fruit was soon selling at premium prices with the promise of superior quality.53 Consumer comments in 1964 after two years of the new program included “these are the bananas we have seen on TV,” and “these have labels on the peel; they must be good.”54 Independent market research organizations found that the brand-name bananas consistently sold at higher prices than unbranded bananas, and that there was a high level of brand awareness and acceptance among consumers.55

  Chiquita Banana was resurrected for her “twenty-first birthday” in 1966, and Elsa Miranda, no relation to Carmen Miranda, was chosen to represent Chiquita. She appeared on national television and radio programs, gave interviews to newspapers and magazines, and toured the country to promote banana sales.56 In honor of the occasion, United Fruit published “21 Chiquita Banana Classics,” a collection of recipes that included banana quick bread, fruit shakes, banana jewel ring, banana fritters, and banana cream pie.57 Both Butterick and McCall’s published Chiquita Banana Costume Patterns for women and girls including a dress and hat, and Betty Crocker developed a Chiquita Banana Cake and Frosting Mix.58 The Chiquita advertising jingle was once again a familiar tune in American homes. On May 3, 1995, the NBC television show “A Word from Our Sponsor” included “Chiquita Banana” among the all-time top-ten best advertising jingles.

  In addition to Chiquita Banana, advertising in the 1960s urged consumers to eat bananas “for goodness’ sake,” promoted bananas as ideal baby food with high vitamin content, and appealed to the diet conscious with the claim that a banana had fewer calories than cottage cheese and was without “a trace of cholesterol.”59 Banana advertisements in the 1970s featured celebrities such as Milton Berle and Bugs Bunny singing the Chiquita song from inside a banana. Company advertising returned to a health pitch in 1983 with a television advertisement set in a grocery store with a mother shopping for a low sodium, high-fiber multivitamin. She selects a jar from the shelf that contains little bananas. The voice over advises “take one a day.”60

  In addition to a brand name, adhesive labels have also been used to promote the use of bananas. In conjunction with the Nabisco Company, one-inch square stickers representing cereal boxes appeared on bananas in the 1980s. There were three different stickers promoting Shredded Wheat, Shredded Wheat ‘n’ Bran, and Spoon Size Shredded Wheat. At the top of each label was the caption “Try me on” or “I’m great on” and each showed a bowl of cereal next to a bunch of bananas. Kellogg’s cereals offered coupons for free bananas and promoted them with banana stickers that read “See Kellogg’s Offer for Free Bananas.” Jello stickers have also shared the banana peel advertising space.

  Chiquita has used sticky labels that read “Take Me To Work,” “Potassium Rich,” “One A Day For Five A Day,” “#1 Fruit Snack,” and “Take One In The Morning,” to promote greater banana consumption. There was even a Christmas sticker with a striped red and green border like a candy cane that read “The Perfect Stocking Stuffer.” In 1992 Chiquita Brands International, the successor to United Fruit Company, spent almost $20 million a year on television and magazine advertising to convince shoppers that bananas with the Chiquita sticker were somehow worth more than those with other brands.61 Today banana stickers are collectors items with special banana sticker albums available over the Internet.

  In 1994 for the fiftieth anniversary of Chiquita, the company produced stickers that pictured past incarnations of the singing banana, and sponsored a contest to select a new Miss Chiquita. Elizabeth Testa, an actress from Syracuse, New York, was chosen to travel around the country handing out bananas while wearing a bowl of fruit on her head.62

  Chiquita Banana seal on a magnet.

  By 1966 other banana producers were also promoting brand-name bananas.63 United Fruit countered with a defensive advertisement in Parents Magazine that showed a hand of bananas with two blue Chiquita stickers. The text read:

  “Can You Ever Get A Bad One? Can Miss America ever get a run in her stocking?” Of course, she can. And that occasional thing known as a “bum banana” can happen to us, too. Let’s face it. We’re not dealing with some machine that turns out cars or soap. We’re dealing with nature. And things can happen. A banana with a defect can somehow slip by. Or a Chiquita Banana can spend the weekend on a store counter. Or a grapefruit can fall on it. Or a customer can prod where she should have patted. But, you’ll have to admit, a bum Chiquita Brand Banana is no everyday thing. We work too hard and care too much for that to happen. Nobody else does. But, then, nobody else has the nerve to run an ad like this, either.”64

  Chiquita, Dole, Bonita, Del Monte, Darien, Reyban, Turbana, Bananacol, Del Lago, Sura, Sunisa, Fyffes, and Lacuna stickers all show up from time to time in the Washington, D.C., area. As grocery store checkout lines became computerized, banana labels began to include the number 4011 as a memory aid to cashiers who entered the code number of each fruit and vegetable as it was being weighed. Other fruit and vegetable producers followed suit, brand-labeling apples, oranges, tomatoes, and pears. In the late 1990s, large grocery chains such as Stop & Shop affixed their own coded labels on non-brand-name bananas and other produce.

  Most people, however, tend to ignore the brand names on fruit since there is usually no choice between brands at any one time. The tactic may even backfire at times when consumers refuse to purchase fruit imported from certain countries or by certain corporations. Unlike the tropical countries where there are many types of banana, the North American market generally receives Cavendish bananas and the consumer is unaware of any difference between company brands.

  United Fruit tried offering gift premiums in conjunction with banana purchases in the 1960s. The first major promotion in October 1964 promised live miniature rose bushes in exchange for four Chiquita Brand seals and fifty cents. It was hoped that this promotion would boost customer awareness and sales of Chiquita bananas. The campaign covered forty major United States markets and included intensive television and related in-store advertising.65 The company soon switched to more product-related goods such as “Best of the Bunch Banana Beach Bags” promoted by disc jockeys on 109 Mutual Broadcasting stations. The blue bags embossed with a golden crown of bananas and the words “Best of the Bunch” were given away as prizes to contestants who wrote banana lyrics to the tune “Clementine.”66 Other promotional items have included a Chiquita Banana pup tent, a Chiquita Banana sleeping bag-comforter, a Chiquita Banana windbreaker, Chiquita Banana breakfast bowl and spoon, and a Chiquita Banana backpack.67

  In the 1990s bananas were advertised as a food rather than a fruit, taking advantage of renewed consumer interest in physical fitness and nutrition. Television and print advertisements called bananas “quite possibly the world’s perfect food.”68 Images of mountain bikers, small children, and grandparents were used to make the point that good nutrition was not just for athletes.69 One advertisement, however, harkened back to the original Chiquita Banana advertisement of 1945 that targeted women�
��s concerns for their appearance. It showed a vanity table, cluttered with cosmetics and a banana peel, with the caption: “True beauty lies beneath the skin.”70

  Chiquita Brands International also experimented with providing a toll-free telephone number and a medical expert to answer questions about bananas, offering a “Chiquita Value Plan” to help Americans eat better. Callers were asked to provide the age and sex of family members and the amount of the family budget spent on food. In return they were promised a personalized menu plan and shopping guide. Critics charged that Chiquita was soliciting demographics that could be combined with other databases and were concerned that Chiquita might be tempted to share the information with other companies. In addition they pointed out that there were only two menu plans, one economic and the other for higher incomes, a far cry from the personalized service promised by the company. The shopping guide suggested that consumers purchase seven pounds of Chiquita bananas each week in comparison with much smaller quantities of other fruit.71

  A smaller variety of banana is finding a new niche in our eating habits. Despite United Fruit Company claims to the contrary, Weight Watchers recommends only a half a banana per serving. Chiquita Brands began test marketing smaller bananas called Chiquita Jr. in 1992, targeting children and diet-conscious adults.72 Smaller bananas are popular because it is easier to consume an entire fruit than to try to save half and have it turn brown or to share it with someone else. Smaller bananas also fit better into lunch boxes. After years of rejecting bananas less than nine inches in length, the seven-inch banana is finding a place in the American supermarket.73