I am very fond of bananas

The title of this post is a line from a poem/song, just in case you think I'm some sort of strange fruit fetishist.

My boyfriend decided he wanted to send a letter to Fyffes, the banana company, asking them how many times better their bananas are than the average banana (the answer being "Fyffe" - it's their witty advertising slogan: "Fyffe times better than the average banana," how hilarious). So, in order to be helpful, I went and had a look at their website to see if they had an e-mail address or something. Well, they do, but they have so very much more.

The site has games. Banana themed games. What's more, there's a rap that you can download as an mp3, plus a "banana storybook". It's somebody's job to think up games to advertise bananas. It's somebody's job to create little animated banana characters called "The Fun Bunch".

Fyffes have clearly spent a fair bit on advertising themselves and creating a site that people want to spend time at. They're also ensuring that they have a whole new generation of banana eaters in the future by marketing themselves at kids. Brilliant isn't it? The thing that puzzles me is that people don't really shop for bananas by brand, do they? A banana is a banana is a banana. You don't walk into the supermarket or greengrocer and say "Give me a banana and make sure it's a Fyffes," do you? You just get whatever bananas they have. So why would a banana company feel the need to advertise and create brand awareness?

Well, I've given them a bit of a helping hand with their advertising crusade whatever their reasoning behind it. It's a fun site and I recommend it for a little bit of banana related amusement.

http://www.fyffes.com/