Hangin Frank.jpg

Flint area resident Cherisse Bradley said she was upset when she saw this picture hanging in 501 Bar and Grill in Flint. She posted the image on her Facebook page. The picture has been removed. (Courtesy Photo)

FLINT, MI - A controversial beer sign has come down at a downtown restaurant after Facebook complaints.



The picture, a print of a former Short's Brewery label, depicted a man hanging and was recently on display at 501 Bar and Grill along with other craft beer label images.



But Flint area resident Cherisse Bradley said she found it offensive.



"I did a double take because I wasn't sure what I was seeing," said Bradley. "I thought is this a picture of a hanging man. The hand looked brown. It looked as it was insinuating a man hanging. I just thought it was distasteful."



Bradley took a picture of the picture and posted it on her Facebook page asking friends how they felt about it.

"This is a picture on the wall at a restaurant downtown flint called 501 Grill. I eat here all the time yet this is the first time I saw this. One of the employees said it was an ad for a beer but I find it very offensive. Do you? Any feedback?"



Comments poured in, some even threatening to boycott the downtown Flint eatery.

501 Bar and Grill owner, Phil Shaltz said they received a number of signs from beer companies but he didn't know one showed a picture of a man hanging.

"When I first saw the sign I didn't understand why anyone would commission it let alone hang it in my establishment."

Shaltz had the sign removed around 9 a.m. Wednesday after receiving messages about the Facebook controversy and someone text messaging him the image.

"The sign is open for really bad interpretation," he said. "The minute we were shown that it was hanging in our establishment we had it taken down. I don't understand the mentality of people who would put anything like that on a sign."

The sign was hung on a back wall in the corner of the restaurant. Employees hung up around 25 signs from different breweries about two months ago.

This is not the image's first run in with controversy.



In 2011 Short's Brewery came under fire for the image that some thought pictured a black man hanging from what looked like a brown hand in the picture.



Short's, a Michigan based company, issued a statement in 2011 saying the picture was of a white man named Frank who supposedly hung himself in the early 1900s. Frank owned City Park Grill in Petoskey, Mich.



Hangin Frank, was one of the company's first beers. They eventually stopped using the image.



The beer has since been renamed Controversiale.

Bradley still says it was poor judgment.



"I think that it's offensive in general even knowing the story behind it," she said. "For someone to commit suicide and (Shorts) use it as a label for a beer is unacceptable."





