Deck the Halls

As the semester is winding down and the holidays are drawing closer, I'm beginning to embrace the Christmas spirit a little more each day (despite the cold weather we've been experiencing). Keeping with the theme, I read an article tonight about a PR blunder involving a Hallmark Christmas ornament.

Article found here: http://www.prdaily.com/crisiscommunications/Articles/15507.aspx

Out of all the Christmas and holiday songs, Hallmark happened to choose "Deck the Halls" to be featured on a holiday ornament... and out of all the lyrics in that song, they chose the line, "Don we now our gay apparel". Only, they took out "gay" and replaced the word with "fun".  I suppose the  backlash could have gone either way; Hallmark may have been attacked for using "gay" on a Christmas ornament, but I think the backlash received from flat-out removing the word would be even stronger, as it draws attention to the fact that they actually removed it. Hallmark could either be labeled as homophobic or they could get attacked by the homophobes. Why risk either?

This is a blunder that could have been so easily avoided. There is such a vast collection of Christmas music that Hallmark could have chosen to use instead of these lyrics from "Deck the Halls". It astounds me that a product like this could actually make it through the brainstorming process and into production. It just causes unnecessary controversy for the company. Hallmark is already an extremely established company; they don't need any additional media attention - especially negative.

Here's hoping that Hallmark scraps this idea before it hits shelves this holiday season.

On a lighter note, stay festive Ottawa!