“Don we now our gay apparel…”
It’s a line from the Yuletide classic Christmas carol “Deck the Halls” that dates back to the 1800′s.
Hallmark, the nation’s leading greeting card company, decided that political correctness took precedence over tampering with the classic song and it backfired. In a big way.
The Kansas City-based corporation decided to come out with a Christmas ornament, but changed the words to “Don we now our FUN apparel.” It seems this misguided attempt to be PC backfired on social media sites across the nation.
One major KC blogger referred to it in a headline “Everyone hates Hallmark for Christmas.”
“The calendar just flipped to November and already Hallmark is having a difficult holiday season,” noted Bloomberg Business. “In attempting to avoid a controversy, Hallmark has apparently offended almost everyone.”
You can be sure rival American Greetings is laughing all the way to the bank with the negative publicity Hallmark received over the stupid move. It couldn’t come at a better time for AG as we enter the 2013 Christmas season.
Hallmark is not used to receiving any negative publicity and immediately reacted to the controversy by trying to justify its change from “gay” to “fun.” It didn’t work.
“When the lyrics to ‘Deck the Halls’ were translated from Gaelic and published in English back in the 1800s, the word ‘gay’ meant festive or merry. Today it has multiple meanings, which we thought could leave our intent open to misinterpretation. … So the planning team decided to say what we meant: ‘fun.’ That’s the spirit we intended and the spirit in which we hope ornament buyers will take it,” said Hallmark.
Few people bought that explanation. Even gays were offended by the change and many claimed Hallmark was being homophobic.
So today Hallmark was forced to apologize and announced the ornament will be removed:
“We’ve been surprised at the wide range of reactions expressed about the change of lyrics on this ornament, and we’re sorry to have caused so much concern. We never intend to offend or make political statements with our products and in hindsight, we realize we shouldn’t have changed the lyrics on the ornament.”
American Greetings is probably waiting to see what Hallmark might do to “White Christmas…”
MISSED THE BOAT
John, you missed the boat on this one.
Removing the word “gay” is very anti-PC. The PC crowd leaves the word in there and indeed emphasises the word when the lyrics are sung.
Because the word “gay” has taken on a sexual meaning, many Chrismas carolers simply skip “Deck the Halls.”
One meaning of the word “gay” is “fun”. Words to many carols have been changed over the years.
I understand that traditionalists were upset with the change. Fine, don’t buy the ornament. But to cop outrage?
Sure, some gays were outraged. We know how so many of them believe in traditional values.
The word “homophobia” means the irrational fear of homosexuals. Homophobia is different from simply disagreeing with “gay rights”.
Hallmark caved in to the PC crowd. It’s sad.