Chiquita Brands International is aiming to paint the town yellow with a summer takeover of central London that will see taxis, buses and digital advertising displays going bananas.

The ‘We are bananas’ campaign, which kicks off on July 17, is part of a nationwide push aimed at building awareness of Chiquita bananas among the brand’s key target audience of mums and millennials, and will backed by a nationwide sticker campaign featuring kids’ favourite characters Minions, stars of the Despicable Me 3 movie hitting cinemas now.

The four-week central London takeover – which will be supported by the brand’s social and digital channels – builds on last year’s successful ‘Just Smile’ themed campaign, which reached more than 47 million consumers.

Five London buses and 300 black cabs will be given ‘We are bananas’ wrap-around makeovers for the duration of the campaign, with taxi customers set to get ‘We are bananas’ Chiquita-branded receipts.

At the same time, Chiquita’s new campaign will be featured on the Clear Channel LD6 on 180 centrally located screens in London, including 48 synchronised screens in Oxford Street, Europe’s busiest shopping zone, with the ‘We are bananas’ campaign set to feature on all screens at the same time for 10 seconds each minute. Playful straplines – created by Chiquita’s global agency, Wieden+Kennedy – will include “hello yellow”, “so healthy it even looks like it’s doing a sit-up,” and “like eating nature’s finger”.

Running alongside the ‘We are bananas’ campaign, Chiquita’s Minions campaign will be available across all retail and foodservice channels until the end of August, including during the all-important back to school season.

John Cockle, sales and market director, UK and Ireland, said: “Our ‘We are bananas’ and Minions stickering campaigns will once again put Chiquita bananas front of mind during the key summer and back to school periods, further bolstering our success in creating a vibrant branded banana category for UK retailers. 

“This is the third time that we have run a high-profile summer campaign in London, which demonstrates our commitment to further building the Chiquita banana brand in the UK.

“To support our growth in the UK Chiquita will be expanding ripening capacity and taking advantage of its industry leading position of supplying the freshest Chiquita Class Extra bananas for its customers.’’