This fruit company printed an open letter to the Pope

Dole is one of the world's largest fruit producers. While you may only think of bananas when you hear the Dole brand name, Dole provides over 300 different products, including apples.

So on International Fruit Day, Dole did something very cheeky. It wrote an open letter to Pope Francis – asking the pontiff for his absolution for fruit after it was blamed for the Original Sin in the Bible.

As the story goes, Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, and were thrown out of the Garden of Eden. So Dole published the open letter to His Holiness in a leading Italian paper – La Repubblica – the only newspaper the Pope ever reads.

The letter went like this:

"With the greatest respect to your hallowed office, we think the time has finally come to address the over two-thousand-year-old elephant in the room. The most catastrophic PR disaster that fruit has ever faced: The calamity of Original Sin. For too long, fruit has been vilified and demonized. Today, more than ever, no fruit should be forbidden."

It went on to say that only Pope Francis had the power, wisdom and authority to finally rectify this slight. Then the letter used some logic in its argument. It said the apple has been slandered most – even though it is never mentioned by name in the Bible. But rather, the classical Greek word for "tree fruit" conveniently sounded like the Latin word for "apple" – which in turn has come to symbolize "evil."

Dole's letter said that instead of being thought of as the Original Sin, could it not be thought of as the Original Snack? Fruit – and apples in particular – is healthy, unlike other sinful indulgences like doughnuts, nachos and curly fries. For these reasons and more, Dole humbly asked for the absolution that only the pontiff could offer.

That one letter, that ran in one newspaper, for just one day, resulted in 55 million media impressions, and 784 different news outlets did stories on the letter, earning the equivalent of $2.2 million in free media.

Did the Pope respond? No.

Did the cheeky letter succeed in making fruit the centre of the conversation? Absolutely.

For more on Cheeky Advertising, click or tap the play button above to hear the full Under the Influence episode. Find more episodes on the CBC Listen app or subscribe to the podcast.