‘Tis the season to ban Hallmark?
Many angry people say yes, and plan to shop elsewhere after the greeting card giant went politically correct crazy on its new “Holiday Sweater” ornament.
The Christmas “Holiday Sweater” ornament features the words to the classic Christmas song “Deck the Halls,” but Hallmark changed the lyrics in an attempt to appear more tolerant and less homophobic, perhaps.
“Don we now our FUN apparel,” the ornament reads. But those aren’t the words. The words, as everyone in the whole world knows, are “Don we now our gay apparel.”
The backlash was so immediate and intense on Facebook and Twitter that the company issued a statement defending the changing of the word “gay” to “fun.”
On Oct. 30, Hallmark issued the following statement on its website:
Hallmark created this year’s Holiday Sweater ornament in the spirit of fun. When the lyrics to “Deck the Halls” were translated from Gaelic and published in English back in the 1800s, the word “gay” meant festive or merry. Today it has multiple meanings, which we thought could leave our intent open to misinterpretation.
The trend of wearing festively decorated Christmas sweaters to parties is all about fun, and this ornament is intended to play into that, so the planning team decided to say what we meant: “fun.” That’s the spirit we intended and the spirit in which we hope ornament buyers will take it.
However, that didn’t appease consumers who continued expressing such outrage and threats to never shop Hallmark again that the company issued an updated statement on Oct. 31:
We’ve been surprised at the wide range of reactions expressed about the change of lyrics on this ornament, and we’re sorry to have caused so much concern. We never intend to offend or make political statements with our products and in hindsight, we realize we shouldn’t have changed the lyrics on the ornament.
According to multiple reports, Hallmark claimed it will not stop selling the ornament.
Watch a report on the Hallmark controversy here:
Some examples of the Facebook messages Hallmark received:
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