Hallmark’s flip-flop on same-sex ads backfires
NEW YORK — The Hallmark Channel’s decision to pull, then reinstate a commercial that featured a same-sex couple kissing shows how controversy can generate more publicity than simply ignoring it.
The company also didn’t help matters by reversing its decision following the backlash.
“It’s hard to keep everyone happy, but flip-flopping doesn’t help,” said Allen Adamson, co-founder of the marketing consultancy Metaforce. “These are difficult issues to navigate but when you’re going to make a call one way or another, make sure you understand the ramifications. You only want to pull the Band-Aid off once.”
The debacle ultimately made a winner out of Zola, the wedding-planning website whose ads a conservative advocacy group didn’t want shown on Hallmark.
“For Zola, this is Christmas times 100,” said Laura Ries, president of marketing firm Ries and Ries. “Nobody ever heard of Zola, and now everybody knows it and loves it.”
Paul Argenti, Dartmouth College professor of corporate communication, added that the debacle “shows you if you know who you are, what you’re doing and stand by your beliefs, you’ll be better off in the end.”
The Hallmark Channel, owned by Hallmark Cards Inc., is Crown Media Family Networks’ flagship cable channel. It is known for family-friendly programming, particularly madefor-TV Christmas-themed movies.
That reputation prompted Hallmark to pull four Zola ads with samesex couples after getting a complaint from a conservative group with a stated mission to “fight against indecency.” Hallmark allowed two ads with opposite-sex couples from Zola, though Zola pulled those after the same-sex ads were nixed.
In one of the pulled ads, two brides stand at the altar and wonder aloud whether their wedding would be going more smoothly if they had used a weddingplanning site like Zola. The lighthearted ad ends with the two brides sharing a quick kiss on the altar.
In an interview over the weekend, Hallmark spokeswoman Molly Biwer said the company felt “it was in the best interest of the brand to pull them and not continue to generate controversy.”
Instead, Hallmark faced criticism on Twitter from celebrities, including Ellen DeGeneres and William Shatner. “Isn’t it almost 2020? What are you thinking?” DeGeneres tweeted.
By Sunday, Hallmark had reversed its decision. In a statement, Hallmark Cards CEO Mike Perry said Crown Media was “agonizing” over the decision. “Said simply, they believe this was the wrong decision,” he said.
That, in turn, prompted calls for a boycott of the Hallmark Channel by the group that made the original complaint, One Million Moms. It portrayed the reversal as a betrayal to conservatives.
Bill Pearce, assistant dean at the University of California, Berkeley business school, said Hallmark was ahead of the issue when it introduced samesex greeting cards in 2008, before same-sex marriage was legalized.