So apparently a PR firm out of Austin didn’t think their name all the way through when they decided to name their company “Strange Fruit.”
The problem? “Strange Fruit” explicitey refers to the lynching of Blacks in the South. It is most famous from a Billie Holiday song. The first lines:
“Southern trees bear a strange fruit/Blood on the leaves and blood at the root/Black body swinging in the Southern breeze/Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.”
They’ve gone on to change their name.
The worst part is that they admit they were aware of the song when they chose the name but didn’t think it would bother anyone. That’s the difference between being ignorant and being stupid. They walked right into the kind of problem that people normally hire PR companies to avoid - and if they can’t manage their own PR, why would any other company hire them?
Wow. Just wow.
Being Texas, they may have thought it might tickle the fancy of some of their prospective clients. 
On the other hand, it is not like “Strange Fruit” is a commonly used phrase. I do not think I have ever heard it outside of the context of the poem/song.
This is mind boggling. They have to be deeply incompetent not to know that people might be bothered by the image. The point of being a PR firm to knowing how people will react to the publicity and it’s clear that these people just don’t have a clue to their profession.
Painting with a fairly wide IgnorantBrush ™ there, are we?
People can be clueless about the background and context of songs. Look at how many wedding bands are asked for “White Wedding.” And I’ve told the story of the kindergarten teacher whose contribution to the school concert was the wee ones singing “Let Me Entertain You.”
I can see a passel of newb communication types skimming the lyrics and still thinking it was a kewwwllll phrase. Cuz, y’know, it hadn’t been on the radio for, like, years…
There’s a huge amount of this, especially in wedding songs, where people evidently chose them based on the title or a much-repeated line, without paying attention to the actual lyrics of the song.
That’s the sort of thing that lead The New Jersery State Assembly to name Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run the New Jersey “Unofficial Youth Rock Anthem” on June 12, 1979. Springsteen himself thought this was weird, since he said the song was about “leaving New Jersey”. Comedian Bruce Wuhl got much mileage out of a routine where he dissected the song lyrics to show how inappropriate it is as NJ state song
Astonishingly stupid.
How many elementary school kids got taught to sing Blow the Man Down … a harmless sea shantey :smack: all about a guy who picks up a woman in a bar, takes her home and gets caught bonking her by her husband, and then shanghaied on a multiyear cruise. :eek: [at least the version I have, the lyrics are different from the Black Ball Line version in wiki. If asked, I can transcribe if needed.]
On the other hand, if a teacher had their class singing “Tomorrow Belongs To Me” you kind of hope they didn’t know the context.
Lol, of all the people to make that complaint, its doubly hilarious that you would.
Hey, what do you think of California liberals?
It was said tongue-in-cheek, but, as I am as close to ground zero on this matter as you, I would say it is not too far off. Some of the local conversations about the Eric Garner/Michael Brown protests have been rather alarming in their vitriol (against blacks). There is a significant segment of the population here that still holds “good ol’ boy” views. And, have you seen the size of some them? It takes and extra-wide IgnorantBrush just to avoid painting all day. 
As my (Native Austinite) wife likes to say, “This wasn’t Texas, it was Austin.”
I’d say it’s a safe bet the new PR firm was run by liberal hipsters rather than by redneck racists.
Perhaps they were trying to gin up a little controversy for a little free PR?
Robert Wuhl.
Sorry – mental card file stuck on “Bruce” because of Springsteen
Well, he is talking about Texas.
Same thing happens with U2’s “One”.
I can see it happening - I knew of the song title, although I doubt I have ever heard the song, but didn’t know the subject until reading this thread.