A series of madcap ads for Dole bananas airing in Japan shows a Banana Man who grows CGI bananas out his head and hands and can shoot them at banana-loving bystanders. Why, oh why? The explanation, and more video, inside…

Japanese banana consumption surged last summer, despite high import tariffs, due to the popularity of “The Morning Banana Diet,” in which you eat one banana in the morning along with a glass of room temperature water for breakfast. The diet was invented by a housewife to help her overweight husband lose weight, and spread virally through a Japanese online social network, mixi. The Dole campaign, which can be summed up as, “everyone loves bananas and there’s this bananman guy who grows them out his body and everyone wants his bananas” (it’s important in advertising for your campaign to tell a simple one-sentence story) seems to be an attempt to capitalize on the craze.

More videos here. [Dole.co.jp]
Japan Goes Bananas for a New Diet [TIME]

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