The owner of TV’s Hallmark Channel on Sunday reversed a decision to ban a commercial depicting a same-sex wedding, suggesting that it was not in keeping with the company’s well-known slogan, “When you care enough to send the very best.”
Earlier this week, Hallmark Channel decided to reject an ad from online-weddings firm Zola which showed two women getting married pondering how their wedding might have improved with the use of Zola’s services. The company cited a desire to avoid controversy, and a conservative advocacy organization, One Million Moms, had already started a petition urging the cable outlet to remove the ad from its schedule
The Hallmark Channel will be reaching out to Zola to reestablish our partnership and reinstate the commercials,” said Mike Perry, president and CEO of Hallmark Cards, which controls Crown Media Networks, the parent company of Hallmark Channel. “Across our brand, we will continue to look for ways to be more inclusive and celebrate our differences.” He acknowledged the ban had caused “hurt and disappointment.”
The imbroglio threatened to overwhelm one of the Hallmark Channel’s biggest programming moments – a broad array of holiday-themed movies that attract broad audiences and the advertisers who wish to cultivate their disposable income. On Saturday night, Walt Disney’s Freeform cable network posted a message on Twitter saying that it would be happy to run Zola’s commercials.
One critic who had excoriated Hallmark for its earlier rejection praised the company’s new stance. “The Hallmark Channel’s decision to correct its mistake sends an important message to LGBTQ people and represents a major loss for fringe organizations, ” said Sarah Kate Ellis, CEO of GLAAD. “LGBTQ people are, and will continue to be a part of advertisements and family programming and that will never change.”
More to come…
Source: Read Full Article
