Home ENTERTAINMENT Hallmark faces backlash for pulling same-sex couple ad, reverses decision (ASL – 12.16.19)
Transcript
Over the weekend the Hallmark Channel released this commercial.
The commercial is from wedding planner “Zola” and it featured two women exchanging wedding vows.
After the commercial aired, Hallmark started facing pressure from the conservative group “1 Million Moms” who posted comments on their website like “Shame on Hallmark for airing commercials with same-sex couples” and “Hallmark movies are family-friendly and you ruined it with the commercial.”
The group call for advertisers and viewers to boycott Crown Media, Hallmark’s parent company.
In response, Hallmark pulled the commercial off the air.
However within hours of the decision, the backlash from pulling the commercial forced Hallmark to reinstate it.
Officials with Hallmark say they made the wrong decision and apologized for the hurt it unintentionally caused by taking the commercial off the air.
In a statement, the company said Hallmark “is and always has been committed to diversity and inclusion.”
According to the statement, the company says it has never been their intention to be divisive or generate controversy.
Hallmark will be working with GLAAD (Gay Lesbian Alliance
Against Defamation) to better represent the LGBTQ community across its portfolio of brands.
Zola issued a statement Sunday night say “We will be in touch with Hallmark in the coming days regarding a potential return to advertising.”
Officials say they have other wedding commercials running on Hallmark that were not pulled.
The only difference is they featured a bride and groom rather than two brides.
The Closed Caption version of this video can be found here:
https://sign1news.com/2019/12/16/sign1news-12-16-19/
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