Hallmark Apologizes For Removing Ads Featuring Same-Sex Couple After Backlash

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — A commercial meant to show a celebration of love became the center of controversy after Hallmark blocked it from airing on its channel.

The network removed four ads from wedding-planning website ZOLA that featured lesbian brides after the conservative group One Million Moms campaigned to have them removed. Two Zola ads featuring only heterosexual couples were allowed to air.

Notable LGBTQ+ figures immediately weighed in on social media.

Since its season launch Oct. 25, the network said it has reached 50 million total viewers.

"Hallmark Channel in the past had not done that before," Sarah Kate Ellis, GLAAD president and CEO, said. "They'd been very inclusive and diverse with their programming."

Ellis said Hallmark bowed to the pressure from One Million Moms without doing research on the group.

"They're an anti-LGBT group that only targets television and film and commercials that have LGBTQ people in them," she said.

Ellis said she hopes this will be a lesson on the importance of representation and inclusiveness.

"I do think, because they took responsibility, they apologized and they did it quickly, that a lot of people will go back to the Hallmark Channel," Ellis said.

Hallmark said it would work with GLAAD to better represent the LGBTQ+ community across its brands.