Banana Power

Black text on a yellow stripe across a black background

"Banana Power" was a slogan adopted by American counterculture during "the Great Banana Hoax of 1967." During the Spring and Summer of that year, counterculture newspapers ran advertisements touting the benefits smoking of banana peels. When properly cooked, dried, and rolled, the resulting powder—called Mellow Yellow—was alleged to produce hallucinogenic effects similar to that of psychedelic drugs. When the FDA attempted to test this allegation, they couldn't find any evidence that the banana peels had any hallucinogenic properties.

The rumor likely started as a subtle but joking protest against the government regulation of psychedelic substances. Thanks to a newly-formed network of underground news papers, the joke made it to the mainstream news and was reported on in magazines such as Time and Newsweek. In April 1967, thousands smoked "Mellow Yellow" together at the Human Be-In in New York City. The fad for smoking banana peels lasted only a few months, but was used in future campaigns advocating for the legalization of drugs like marijuana.