When you think of a campaign to advertise bananas, there are a few reference points that immediately spring to mind. Monkeys, for example. Always popular with the public, and cute and funny too. Some way of stressing the health benefits of the product would probably be considered as well – maybe an athlete boasting of the extra energy that his or her banana intake provides. And given that we’re in the Middle East, a shot of a doting mother patting her angelic child on the head as she sends him off to school with a banana in his backpack must surely figure high on the brain-storming list.

There are also a number of things that don’t pop into your brain (provided you’re relatively healthy in the head) when you think of advertising bananas. Among them, we’d imagine, are the following: a caveman looking to bring down a pterodactyl with a banana, a frumpy woman with bad hair interviewing a Sumo wrestler (using a banana as a microphone), and a Latino-looking cop in front of a fire hydrant demanding the surrender of a renegade polar bear by threatening it with a banana.

These images, however – badly Photoshopped and accompanied by the copy “100% Banana” in a blocky, 70s-style retro font – are exactly what Fortune Promoseven, Dubai, came up with for its Chiquita in-store campaign for Beirut. We’d hate to play word association with these guys.

We really like the campaign, though. Rather than focus on health benefits or the product’s natural goodness, the agency is playing on the “bananas-meaning-crazy” theme. You could argue that this means it’s failing to highlight any of Chiquita’s product benefits and, therefore, failing to do the necessary job for the client. It’s unlikely, after all, that people are going to be attracted to a food by the promise of ensuing insanity.

However, the visually arresting, fun and bold ads pay consumers the compliment of assuming that they’re not going to interpret the images so simplistically and that they’re smart enough to realize that the amateurish art direction is deliberate. It helps that these ads were for the Lebanese market, probably the most sophisticated in the Middle East when it comes to advertising.

The campaign also works because the client doesn’t need to explain its product’s benefits. The vast majority of people know that bananas are good for you. To reiterate that in an advert would be something of a waste of space. And Chiquita is a huge brand – commanding around 25 percent of the world’s banana market – so there’s no pressing need to stress what the company does. What was needed was a way to grab customers’ attention as they walk around a store.

The main purpose of the campaign, then, is to achieve that ever-elusive magic payoff: Cut-through. Consumers are constantly bombarded by advertising and promotions, so how do you make them remember yours? You make it stand out from the crowd. That’s exactly what these ads do.

Chiquita only has three real competitors, and this quirky, catchy campaign should ensure that “Chiquita” is the first word in consumers’ minds when they think of bananas. Or second. After “pterodactyl,” obviously.

Client: Chiquita
Agency: FP7
Location: Dubai
Media: In-store posters
Market: Beirut
Creative director: Marc Lineveldt
Copywriter: Vincent Fichard
Art director: Matthew Jones