The Hallmark Channel faced bitter criticism on Sunday over its decision to pull ads for a wedding-planning website featuring two brides kissing at the altar, following a complaint from a conservative advocacy group.

#BoycottHallmark trended on Twitter as celebrities like Ellen DeGeneres and William Shatner assailed the decision.

“Put the commercials back!” Shatner wrote.

DeGeneres asked: “Isn’t it almost 2020?”

The LGBTQ advocacy group Glaad called the decision to remove the ads by website Zola “discriminatory and especially hypocritical coming from a network that claims to present family programming and and also recently stated they are ‘open’ to LGBTQ holiday movies”.

The group said it would be asking other Hallmark advertisers where they stand on the issue, and if they now will pull their ads. Zola has said it will not advertise on Hallmark.

“The debate surrounding these commercials on all sides was distracting from the purpose of our network, which is to provide entertainment value,” said Molly Biwer, Hallmark’s senior vice-president for public affairs and communications.

“The Hallmark brand is never going to be divisive. We don’t want to generate controversy, we’ve tried very hard to stay out of it … we just felt it was in the best interest of the brand to pull them and not continue to generate controversy.”

Hallmark approved a commercial where a heterosexual couple kissed. All kisses, couples and marriages are equal Mike Chi, Zola

The conservative group One Million Moms, part of the American Family Association, complained about the ads personally to Bill Abbott, chief executive of Crown Media Family Networks, Hallmark’s parent company.

Zola, a wedding planning website, submitted six ads, four containing a lesbian couple. After Hallmark pulled those ads but not two featuring opposite-sex couples, Zola pulled its remaining ads, the company said.

“The only difference between the commercials that were flagged and the ones that were approved was that the commercials that did not meet Hallmark’s standards included a lesbian couple kissing,“ said Mike Chi, Zola’s chief marketing officer.

“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.”

One marketing analyst said the family-friendly Hallmark is in a PR crisis it should have seen coming.

“They’ve got trouble on their hands, and they’ve got to do something fast,” said Paul Argenti, a Dartmouth College professor of corporate communication. “They should never have accepted the ads if they weren’t willing to stand up for them. If you didn’t believe in gay couples getting married, why did you take the ads in the first place?”

The question Hallmark will now have to answer, he said, is: “What are your values? Do you stand for all families?”’

In one of the pulled ads, two brides wonder if their wedding would be going more smoothly if they had used a site like Zola. The ad ends with the two brides sharing a quick kiss on the altar.

The actor Sandra Bernhard, who played one of the first openly bisexual characters on network TV in Roseanne, also criticized Hallmark’s decision.

“All the groovy gay ladies I know won’t be watching your Christmas schlock,” she wrote on Twitter. “They’ll be out celebrating with their families, wives, children, friends on and on and getting married in chic ensembles. Didn’t you all get the memo? Family is all inclusive.”



The Hallmark decision was also mocked on Saturday Night Live, while Netflix US tweeted stills from a TV show and movie it labeled “Titles Featuring Lesbians Joyfully Existing And Also It’s Christmas Can We Just Let People Love Who They Love.”

Hallmark has appeared to be considering more same-sex themed content. Asked about the possibility of holiday movies based on same-sex relationships, Abbott was quoted in the Hollywood Reporter as saying: “We’re open to really any type of movie of any type of relationship.”