TV & VIDEO - Oct. 5, 1987

The International Banana Assn. has protested to the Public Broadcasting Service because an upcoming program on safe sex features a condom being peeled over a banana, according to Reuters news service. During “AIDS: Changing The Rules,” a show hosted by Ron Reagan Jr. that is set to air on PBS stations in November, a two-minute sequence demonstrates in detail, with a banana, the right way for a man to don a condom. “The banana is an important product and deserves to be treated with respect and consideration,” wrote Robert Moore, president of the association representing U.S. banana importers, in an angry letter to PBS. Moore said when he was in the military, health instructors used a broom handle as a prop for condom demonstrations, “and that seemed adequate to me.”