Caving in to pressure from One Million Moms, a division of the conservative American Family Association that defines its mission as to “fight against indecency,” the Hallmark Channel on Saturday, withdrew two commercials showing A same-sex couple kissing at the altar.
Family-friendly Hallmark, responding to the initial petition from the conservative group, pulled the commercials made by the wedding company Zola, saying that the network had felt the ads were too controversial and distracting. Zola had originally submitted six ads, with four of them showing same-sex couples getting married and two ads featuring heterosexual couples at the altar.
This actually has me genuinely angry.
It's disgusting and pathetic that Hallmark caved to a mob of trad snowflakes and spiked a perfectly innocuous ad. A slap in the face to gay people everywhere. BoycottHallmarkChannel Polum-ketchup-on-steak-bo (@brad_polumbo) December 15, 2019
Hallmark pulled the four ads with same-sex couples and continued to run the two with heterosexual couples, but Zola pulled those. Zola’s chief marketing officer, Mike Chi, told the New York Times he was surprised by the move: “All kisses, couples, and marriages are equal celebrations of love and we will no longer be advertising on Hallmark,” he said.
Hallmark reverses course
The earlier decision by Crown Media, Hallmark’s parent company, to pull the ads was met with outrage by millions of people online – including prominent LGBTQ celebrities – and led to calls to boycott Hallmark in the middle of its popular Christmas movie season.
Ellen DeGeneres and William Shatner criticized the move and the boycott led to the hashtag #BoycottHallmarkChannel trending on Twitter at one point.
LGBTQ families are families. We have spouses, kids, 9-5 jobs, grocery store trips, holiday get-togethers, moments of grace and happiness and loss and tragedy.
Our families matter. They are beautiful.
Shame on HallmarkChannel for validating bigotry.BoycottHallmarkChannel
— Charlotte Clymer ️ (@cmclymer) December 15, 2019
On Sunday, Hallmark took to Twitter and admitted it had made a mistake. In a statement – the president and CEO of Hallmark Cards, Mike Perry, wrote the team was “truly sorry” for the move.
“The Crown Media team has been agonizing over this decision as we’ve seen the hurt it has unintentionally caused. Said simply, they believe this was the wrong decision,” he said. “We are truly sorry for the hurt and disappointment this has caused.”
Hallmark will be working with GLAAD to better represent the LGBTQ community across our portfolio of brands. The Hallmark Channel will be reaching out to Zola to reestablish our partnership and reinstate the commercials. p17nJpnjEB
— Hallmark (@Hallmark) December 16, 2019
Zola, the wedding company that made the ads was also relieved at Hallmark’s decision. In an email, according to ABC News, the company said it would be in touch with Hallmark “regarding a potential return to advertising.”
The company’s chief marketing officer, Mike Chi, said in a statement that Zola was “deeply troubled when Hallmark rejected our commercials for featuring a lesbian couple celebrating their marriage, and are relieved to see that decision was reversed.”
