Signs of the Times: Hallmark Introduces Gay Marriage Cards The Gay Financial Network AJ Burton Aug 21, 2008
Now that more than 1,000 newspapers across the nation accept wedding
announcements from same-sex couples, it only seems right that Hallmark should
make a card specifically celebrating that happy occasion.
And they have. Finally.
Hallmark added the cards after California joined Massachusetts as the only
U.S. states with legal gay marriage.
"It's our goal to be as relevant as possible to as many people as we can,"
Hallmark spokeswoman Sarah Gronberg Kolell told the Associated Press.
It's not just an attempt to stay relevant, though. By not speaking directly
to gay unions with their cards, the company was missing out on an ever-growing
piece of the gay marriage pie, an industry that continues to boom.
By some estimates, gay weddings and commitment ceremonies for same-sex
couples generate about $1 billion a year in revenue, according to media and
entertainment company PlanetOut. A survey conducted by PlanetOut shows "gay
consumers earn 20% more than their straight counterparts, on average, and spend
about 10% more on nuptials."
Although Hallmark doesn't offer cards that specifically cover other legally
sanctioned forms of gay relationships -- like Civil Unions or Domestic
Partnerships -- the language inside the cards makes no specific mention of
wedding or marriage, so the cards could be used to cover any kind of gay union.
The images on the outside, however, are clearly geared toward same-sex
relationships, as the cards feature graphics that show two tuxedos, overlapping
hearts or intertwined flowers that are unmistakably for gay couples.
Hallmark began offering coming-out cards last year.
The introduction of the gay marriage cards makes Hallmark the first major
greeting card company in the country to make such an offering. And for the
moment, they've got a lock on gay marriages: Hallmark's largest competitor,
American Greetings Corp., says it has no plans to enter the market, saying its
current offerings are general enough to speak to a lot of different
relationships.
'It's just that right now there's not enough of a need," Amanda Todorovich, a
spokeswoman for American Greetings, a publicly traded company with annual sales
of $2 billion, said after same-sex marriage became legal in Massachusetts. ''We
have cards that can be applied to those situations. It's not like we're doing
that because we're trying to make some political statement."
The trade group, Greeting Card Association, reports that it does not track
how many companies provide same-sex wedding cards but believes the number is
increasing.
"The fact that you have someone like Hallmark going into that niche shows
it's growing and signals a trend," Barbara Miller, a spokeswoman for the
association, told AP this week.
Independent card makers, however, have addressed the occasion for some time.
Rob Fortier, founder of the New York-based Paper Words, added same-sex wedding
cards that are both touching and humous to his card line after contemplating
what he would want to receive.
"A lot of people think a gay greeting card needs a rainbow on it," Fortier
told AP. "I don't want that."
Hallmark has a history of being sensitive to the response of card buyers when
it comes to gay issues, last year pulling a Father's Day card many consumers
found offensive.
The cover of the card featured a photo of an idyllic, upscale picnic spread
with the caption, "Dad, how about a Father's Day picnic?" The punch line inside:
"Too queer? Yeah, I thought so too."
The Advocate magazine brought the card to the attention of Hallmark's media
liaison, Deidre Parkes, who said that the company would pull the cards from
shelves immediately.
"We are stopping the shipping of the card, and we will not produce it again.
Hallmark's intent is never to offend, and we're truly sorry if that is the case
here," Parkes wrote in an email to the magazine.
Earlier this year Hallmark introduced a line of 176 cards called Journeys,
intended to address issues typically ignored by mainstream greeting cards, like
coming out, anorexia and divorce.
UCLA's Williams Institute expects nearly 120,000 same-sex couples to wed in
California over the next three years, boosting California business profits and
providing some nice windfall tax revenue to help Sacramento square the circles
in future budget negotiations.
