Dave & Buster's Takes 'Banana for Scale' Meme to Absurd Heights

My, that’s a big banana Dave & Buster’s installed at the Hollywood & Highland mall in Los Angeles last weekend.

It’s 40 feet high and glows at night. Riffing on the “Bananas for Scale” meme—placing ‘nanas in photos to illustrate the size of other objects—the playful installation serves as the centerpiece of a campaign from Mother New York.

Phallic much? Well, the work’s got an Andy Warhol pop-art vibe, at any rate. It hypes D&B’s 40-foot “Wow Wall” of TV screens that can show nine different pro sports events at a time. Nine games. On one wall. That’s … bananas?

“We knew we had to make a big impression,” a Mother rep tells Muse. “A 40-foot banana or TV sounds big, but it can never feel as absurdly massive as it does in real life. It was our way of emulating what it’s like to feel like a tiny baby next to one of Dave & Buster’s huge Wow Walls.”

The rep continues: “It takes a lot to make a banana this big. First, we had to create a 3-D render and texture the banana. Then that design is cut out into sections that are sewn together, like a printed balloon. We even put some lights in it, so it can be seen at night from far down Hollywood Boulevard.”

L.A. is a key market for the restaurant chain, which expects 2.1 million monthly impressions at the Hollywood & Highland location.

There’s also an Instagram filter designed to generate broader … appeal.

What, no video game character skins? D&B slipped up there. (Make it stop.)

Speaking of games, bananas also slotted into this No Frills campaign as retro controllers, while Pabst Blue Ribbon offered branded ‘nana stickers as part of its “In Home Advertising” promo last week.