A TV network that is known for its heartwarming movies and not for its rabble-rousing, Hallmark Channel has recently managed to rouse some rabble thanks to a commercial featuring two women sharing a kiss. The ad has sparked a negative reaction from the vocal advocacy group One Million Moms, which is now petitioning Hallmark Channel to reverse course and stop airing LGBTQ-related content.
What Is The Commercial About?
For anyone who may have assumed that the commercial in question was a Hallmark-produced spot promoting the TV channel itself, that's not the case. The ad that sent One Million Moms into an uproar was actually for the wedding-planning website Zola.
In it, a same-sex couple is getting married, and their time at the altar is spent discussing the advantages that Zola provides its customers when it comes to organizing nuptials. The 30-second spot ends on the couple sharing a kiss and then walking back down the aisle as a newly married couple.
You can watch it for yourself below.
By any stretch, the Zola commercial is a tame one, and the kiss isn't salacious in any sense of the word. But that didn't stop the One Million Moms group from condemning the ad and the network in general.
What Was One Million Moms' Reaction?
After allegedly receiving complaints from viewers about the Zola ad airing on Hallmark Channel, One Million Moms put out a press statement combined with a petition that calls for Hallmark to reconsider broadcasting ads and other content that embraces LGBTQ characters and storylines.
The One Million Moms petition acknowledges that Hallmark Channel doesn't currently have any projects in the works that are focused on the LGBTQ community. However, the group also brought up comments made by execs at Crown Media Family Networks, the company that owns Hallmark, in which the network's goal to add more inclusive content was made clear.
Below is a portion of the petition:
Shame on Hallmark for airing commercials with same-sex couples and even considering movies with LGBT content and lead characters. Until recently, Hallmark had a good record for keeping their movies and commercials family friendly. Now, parents can no longer trust Hallmark because Hallmark is no longer allowing parents to be the primary educators when it comes to sex and sexual morality.
One Million Moms is not knew to the TV-protesting game. As long as it has existed under the umbrella of the American Family Association, it and the One Million Dads group has targeted various projects and entertainers for promoting LGBTQ values and other viewpoints it sees as negative, including Ellen DeGeneres' J.C. Penney's campaign, GEICO's pig mascot Maxwell, a Campbell's Soup ad, and the then-Fox series Lucifer.
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