Update: It turns out this was a planned marketing stunt.

Last Sunday during a soccer match between Villareal and Barcelona, a fan threw a banana at the Brazilian Barcelona defender Dani Alves as he went to make a corner kick. Alves has made internet history with his witty response: without missing a beat, he grabbed the banana, took a bite, then jumped right back in the game. Since then, Brazilian Facebook and Twitter have taken off with photos of soccer players, celebrities, and ordinary citizens posing with bananas, accompanied by the hashtag #todossomosmacacos  or “we are all monkeys.”

Unfortunately, taunts about bananas and references to black people as “monkeys” within soccer is embarrassingly common. And for someone from Brazil — where ...