Sophia Michaels
Yielding to a conservative group’s objections, the Hallmark Channel has decided to drop four commercials for the wedding planning website Zola because they showed brides kissing each other.
Hallmark told the New York Times that they do not allow ads “that are deemed controversial” and that the women showing “public displays of affection” violated the channel’s policies, even though commercials showing a bride and groom kissing are still allowed to run on the channel.
The channel pulled the ads after One Million Moms, a conservative group that is a part of the American Family Association, published a petition online that had close to 25,000 signatures as of Friday. Zola was then notified this week that four of their six ads would not air.
“The decision not to air overt public displays of affection in our sponsored advertisement, regardless of the participants, is in line with our current policy, which includes not featuring political advertisements, offensive language, R-rated movie content and many other categories,” a Hallmark Channel spokesman told the Times.
The stated mission of the group who won out here, One Million Moms, is to “fight against indecency.”
Zola said it disagrees with Hallmark’s decision and said it will no longer run ads on the channel. “Hallmark approved a commercial where a heterosexual couple kissed. All kisses, couples and marriages are equal celebrations of love and we will no longer be advertising on Hallmark,” said Zola’s chief marketing officer Mike Chi.
Featured via: Rollingstone
