The Chiquita company mascot Miss Chiquita, now Chiquita Banana, was created in 1944 by Dik Browne, who is best known for his Hägar the Horrible comic strip. Miss Chiquita started as an animated banana with a woman’s dress and legs. Advertisements featured the trademark banana character wearing a fruit-filled sombrero. The obvious inspiration was Brazilian bombshell Carmen Miranda, who was known for wearing exotic fruit-adorned hats/headdresses. Miss Chiquita was depicted as a banana until 1987, when artist Oscar Grillo, creator of the Pink Panther, transformed her into a woman. A new Miss Chiquita design was unveiled in 1998. Peel-off logo stickers have been placed on bananas since 1963. This year was Miss Chiquita’s 60th anniversary.
P.S. As a playable 8-bit character in my retro artillery game, Miss Chiquita throws bananas (obviously), just like the original gorilla character and inspiration for this entire project, QBasic Gorilla.
