After a group called One Million Moms launched a petition against The Hallmark Channel in protest of a commercial showing a same-sex wedding ceremony, the popular family network has decided that the ad has no place on their airwaves. Insisting that the commercial for wedding planning website Zola should never have aired in the first place, Hallmark released an apologetic statement promising not to make the same mistake again.
“The Hallmark Channel has always been known for its family friendly movies. Even its commercials are usually safe for family viewing. But unfortunately, that is not the case anymore,” One Million Moms said on its website.
Allied viewers agreed. “Why would you show a lesbian wedding commercial on the Hallmark Channel? Hallmark movies are family friendly, and you ruined it with the commercial,” one viewer said.
One Million Moms said that Hallmark had compromised their reputation.
“Now, parents can no longer trust Hallmark because Hallmark is no longer allowing parents to be the primary educators when it comes to sex and sexual morality,” they wrote.
A few days later, Hallmark account reps told Zola that they were pulling the ad.
“We are not allowed to accept creatives that are deemed controversial,” they wrote. “The decision not to air overt public displays of affection in our sponsored advertisement, regardless of the participants, is in line with our current policy, which includes not featuring political advertisements, offensive language, R-rated movie content and many other categories.”
In a statement to the press, Hallmark said it was important to move past the controversy so that they could return to providing the kind of family-friendly content viewers expect from the network.
“The debate surrounding these commercials on all sides was distracting from the purpose of our network, which is to provide entertainment value,” a Hallmark representative said.
In a statement of its own, Zola implicitly accused Hallmark of anti-gay bias.
“The only difference between the commercials that were flagged and the ones that were approved was that the commercials that did not meet Hallmark’s standards included a lesbian couple kissing,” Zola Chief Marketing Officer Mike Chi said. “Hallmark approved a commercial where a heterosexual couple kissed. All kisses, couples and marriages are equal celebrations of love, and we will no longer be advertising on Hallmark.”
It should perhaps be noted that, only a few days ago, Bill Abbot of Hallmark’s parent company, Crown Media, told The Advocate that he was open to producing Christmas movies that feature LGBT storylines. One has to imagine that Abbot is rethinking that stance in the wake of this particular controversy.
