Bananas had been introduced to the French public at the Exposition Universelle held in Paris in 1900 and quickly became wildly popular. They were prized for their resistance to contamination, relatively low price, and high level of nutrition. Such exotic imports all but disappeared in Europe during World War II. By the late 1950s, however, when this poster was designed, the French economy was booming, and bananas became widely available. In this illustrated design, four men in top hats are involved in various comic antics involving a banana hot-air ballon and a banana boat; they also eat a banana in unison as they promote the special qualities of this economical fruit: light, stimulating, and nutritious.