Billboard Bananas

Not sure when Miss Chiquita started promoting video games, but she should stop that and stick with what she is good at, which is touting her namesake fruit's benefits and virtues.

We grew up with the Chiquita banana music and lyrics looping around inside our heads. My apologies if it gets stuck there again, but here it is, one of the most enduring jingles ever:

"I'm Chiquita banana and I've come to say - Bananas have to ripen in a certain way- When they are fleck'd with brown and have a golden hue - Bananas taste the best and are best for you - You can put them in a salad - You can put them in a pie-aye - Any way you want to eat them - It's impossible to beat them - But, bananas like the climate of the very, very tropical equator - So you should never put bananas in the refrigerator."

Music © 1945 Shawnee Press Inc. under license to Chiquita Brands International, Inc.

Both the jingle and Miss Chiquita were introduced to educate consumers about how to store and eat bananas which were, in 1944, an exotic new produce offering. Miss Chiquita was drawn by Dik Browne the creator of the Campbell Soup Kids and Hagar the Horrible. She was depicted as an animated banana and made many appearances in person and on popular radio shows, movies, and commercials to promote her product. In 1987 she was redrawn by the artist who created the Pink Panther to appear as the human Miss Chiquita that her public imagined her to be.

You can hear the original Chiquita Jingle and a newer version promoting the healthy aspects of banana eating here.

You can learn more about the wonderful Miss Chiquita here.