The Hallmark
hullabaloo

When an Advocate reader was shopping for a Father's Day card, he came across one greeting he thought highly offensive.

The cover of the card featured a photo of an idyllic, upscale picnic spread: plaid blanket, wicker basket, a bottle of wine and two glasses, a round of bread, a fruit plate. Above the photo, the card read, "Dad, how about a Father's Day picnic?" The punch line inside: "Too queer? Yeah, I thought so too."

The reader said that he saw the card in two separate supermarkets and complained both times to store managers. But his greatest disappointment was in the card company.

"Hallmark has long marketed its products with the slogan 'When you care enough to send the very best,' " he said via e-mail. "For my money, 'the very best' does not include the use of slurs against a part of the company's customer base."

The Advocate brought this card to the attention of Hallmark's media liaison, Deidre Parkes, who said that the company would pull the cards from shelves immediately.

"[Hallmark's business unit] reviewed it today and did all agree that it was in poor judgment to include the card in the line," Parkes said in an e-mail Thursday. "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."

Earlier this year the greeting card giant introduced a line of 176 cards called Journeys, intended for dealing with life's more delicate issues, like coming out, anorexia, and divorce.