above: 6 of the 18 winning designs, all of which are shown later in this post
"I'm a Chiquita Banana and I've come to say...." Okay, most of my readers are probably too young to remember the legendary jingle, so I'll just get to the point.
The Chiquita brand just ran a design contest in an effort to both refresh the brand and elicit consumer engagement. They asked people to submit new designs for the stickers that are placed on their bananas, which they have been doing since 1963. Note that you can still use their sticker generator to create your own online sticker and then purchase that design from Zazzle.
above: the current Chiquita brand sticker was designed in 1986
Each entrant was limited to submitting no more than 25 designs. The designs had to be on a white background and in the classic Chiquita sticker shape and could not use "Miss Chiquita", the brand mascot, in any way, shape or form. Entries had to include the outer blue ring and the design had to be contained within what they term "the yellow racetrack."
above: the company mascot, Miss Chiquita, as the 1944 version by Dik Browne and the current version drawn in 1987 by Oscar Grillo, was not allowed in the new sticker designs
50 designs were selected as finalists based on the following criteria
* Creativity (30%)
* Visual impact (30%)
* The extent to which the sticker embodies the following five Chiquita brand attributes :Fun, Family-friendly, Youthful, energetic, Fresh (25%)
* The extent to which the sticker can be recognized as a Chiquita banana sticker (15%)
A person could have no more than one design in the 50 finalists which were then posted on the sticker-contest website. The public was then invited to vote for their favorite sticker design.
above: 8 worthy finalists designs that did not make it into the winning 18
Before I show you the 18 winning sticker designs, here's a little brand and sticker history:
Miss Chiquita was introduced in 1944 and Chiquita was the first company to brand a banana. The idea of the stickers came along in 1963 and believe it or not, they are still put on by hand so as not to bruise the fruit.
above: The brand used posters like this one from 1950 before putting stickers on the bananas.
The very first drawing of Miss Chiquita in 1944 and stickers from 1963 to the present:
Now, the 18 final winning designs which will be appearing on bananas in November.
Be sure to see all 50 finalists because there were some great designs that should have made it into the final 18. See all 50 finalists here
Go here to learn more about the winning designs.