Banania "y'a bon" (advertising poster, Paris, 1915)
Colour lithograph advertisement in which a broadly grinning soldier in the blue jacket, red-trimmed cuffs, red chechia and white trousers of a French colonial tirailleur sits beside a rifle, eating from a tin cup, next to a crate stamped Banania and the slogan 'y'a bon' in imitation pidgin. The product is tied to the wartime image of the colonial infantry and to 'French' food, so the soldier's presence and the mock-dialect caption sell the breakfast food rather than any evidence about it.
- Date
- 1915
- Period
- First World War
- Made by
- Banania (Paris), printed by Affiches Camis
- Region
- Western and Central Europe
- Country
- France
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Corporation
- Regime
- Viviani Government
- Leader
- Rene Viviani
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Persuade or win support
- Themes
- Empire and colonialism, Race and ethnicity, War and the military
- Event
- World War I
- Techniques
- Transfer
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Bibliotheque nationale de France (Gallica), via Wikimedia Commons, retrieved September 29, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (published 1915; BnF Gallica; Wikimedia Commons: Public domain, not copyrighted)
Bibliotheque nationale de France, Gallica, btv1b9006003d
Text on the object
BANANIA BANANIA LE PLUS NOURRISSANT DES ALIMENTS FRANÇAIS La Boite......... 1f.40 La Double Boite... 2f.50 ADMINISTRATION 48, R. de la Victoire, PARIS y'a bon REPRODUCTION & IMITATION RIGOUREUSEMENT INTERDITES AFFICHES. CAMIS. PARIS
BANANIA BANANIA THE MOST NOURISHING OF FRENCH FOODS The box......... 1 f. 40 The double box... 2 f. 50 ADMINISTRATION 48, Rue de la Victoire, PARIS it good (imitation pidgin: 'it is good') REPRODUCTION AND IMITATION STRICTLY FORBIDDEN POSTERS. CAMIS. PARIS
The BnF scan carries a shelf-mark strip and colour bar at the foot (W 024231, Gr Roul n.1, CAMIS), not part of the poster. 'Y'a bon' is a non-standard rendering of 'il y a bon'.
