Strange Fruit PR Firm Vanishes After Getting a History Lesso

[Deleted]

Dec 8, 2014 13:34:03 GMT -5 ttt said:

So their LinkedIn page is still up...

Strange Fruit Public Relations is a boutique, PR firm that specializes in food, drink, hospitality, restaurants, music and more. SFPR is the brainchild of two friends searching for a fresh approach to the mundane packaged style of PR that dominates the industry. Our goal is to hand pick clients that have a truly compelling story, those who bring something new and inventive to their industry.

To be fair, lynching victims do have compelling stories.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm planning to name my new business Sleep Now in the Fire.

[Michelle]

Dec 8, 2014 13:43:52 GMT -5 ajj said:

Dec 8, 2014 13:04:20 GMT -5 mrshandy said:

I can't believe that no one googled their name. I think they must have known but didn't care until someone else did.

I used to listen to a lot of jazz/Billy Holiday/Louis Armstrong and heard this song. I never learned about it in history class or anything.

Yep, it wasn't History class for me either. Just a love of music. I had a great music teacher that had us listen to all kinds of music and explained the history of it. 

To that point, this song should be played during February in music classes across the country.


We say we should never forget 911 because of the thousands of innocent people who were killed in our country. The same should apply to the period in our history where we kidnapped human beings and treated them and their descendants like livestock, and later as those who were "less than" for another century and longer.

[Deleted]

I don't think I've ever heard anyone use the term Strange Fruit.

[Deleted]

I'm also going to launch a matchmaking business.

I shall call it . . .

One More in the Name of Love.

[Deleted]

Dec 8, 2014 13:46:45 GMT -5 StrawberryBlondie said:

I wonder if this is a song I'd recognise if I heard it. Cause the name rings no bells.

That aside, these people need to get out of PR.

I would doubt it. The title is a lyric and one of the most haunting parts of the song. I've really probably only heard it 2 or 3 times and it very much stayed with me.

[sandsonik]

I know it but I'm old .

In college, I had a roommate who used 'fruit' as a secret way to say pot. She knew all about strange fruit!

[thejackpot]

Yeah it always surprises me what people don't know. This song is just so powerful. I introduce it to my students when we study the Harlem Renaissance.

The PR firm should have done a simple google search and learned something.

[greeneggs]

Dec 8, 2014 13:21:50 GMT -5 jillboston said:

One of them is named Ali Slutsky... You would think she would understand the importance of names.

Co-owners Ali Slutsky and Mary Mickel are “thinking long and hard” about new names after pulling the plug on Strange Fruit’s Facebook page, Twitter and website, Slutsky told the Daily News over the phone, following a social media backlash.

“We are really sorry for offending people. We’re getting blasted on social media claiming that we’re racist ... It’s not true at all,” Slutsky said Sunday.

The owners knew of the song when creating their business, but chose Strange Fruit for its culinary sound. They had not researched the song's lyrics, Mickel added.

Did it ever occur to these public relations geniuses that it just might be a good idea to, oh I don't know, maybe LISTEN to the song that keeps popping up in their Google searches?  I know if I was naming my business and there were eleventeen thousand Google entries for a song with that same name I just might be curious enough to listen to it just to make sure that it's NOT ABOUT LYNCHING!  

[Deleted]

Dec 8, 2014 13:55:36 GMT -5 @smorriso said:

Dec 8, 2014 13:50:44 GMT -5 @helenabonhamcarter said:

I don't think I've ever heard anyone use the term Strange Fruit.

Maybe I didn't show up in your fb feed, but I've used it several times to describe the parallels of the shootings to lynchings in my statuses.

I need to have a talk with my FB because I haven't seen your posts. Now I'm feeling salty.

[hopecounts]

Dec 8, 2014 13:46:45 GMT -5 StrawberryBlondie said:

I wonder if this is a song I'd recognise if I heard it. Cause the name rings no bells.

That aside, these people need to get out of PR.

here ya go.

pandce.proboards.com/post/8067641/thread

[epphd]

I admit to being woefully culturally illiterate when it comes to music. These women get no passes - you can't just make up a (to them) random phrase or idiom and not check as to whether it has larger relevance.

And good grief - after a 0.1 nanosecond education - or even just thinking about "gosh, how does 'strange fruit' relate to lynchings?" I will never NOT know that or unknow it. It's simply so obvious, evocative and horrifying. I'll do my best to take Smo's orders and spread it around.