The Greeting Card Graveyard

Posted on March 28, 2006

So where do all of Hallmark's rejected greeting cards go? To the greeting card graveyard, of course. Many greeting cards thought up by the writers at Hallmark don't pass editorial scrutiny. So why were they rejected?

Some were sent away for being too profane, others for making snide comments at inopportune times. Now the greeting cards that never made it to the stores hang solemnly on a wall at Hallmark Cards Inc. For employees at Hallmark's Shoebox division who make their living writing humorous greetings, only a small fraction of their work does end up as cards for birthdays, holidays and special occasions. The best of the rest are brought to their final resting place - a giant fabric "NO" along one office wall.
"It could be that it's highly inappropriate. It could be that it feels like too much of an internal joke," said Sarah Tobaben, an editorial director for Shoebox. "We want to write for the mainstream while taking some appropriate risks."
Hallmark introduced its Shoebox line of irreverent cards 20 years ago this spring and says it has sold more than 2 billion since. Most days since the line's inception, card writers have been given an assignment to develop ideas for a specific category. They typically write them on blank 3-inch-by-5-inch index cards, folded to resemble a miniature greeting, and then they're tried out on co-workers in a roundtable read-off.
"I think sometimes the air gets sucked out of the room by something I've written," said Dan Taylor, a Shoebox stylist - the highest title bestowed on card writers. "It's actually beyond silence."

So what got rejected? Here's a sampling:

CHRISTMAS
Front: "Spread some holiday cheer."
Inside: "Or drink alone. Who am I to judge?"
WEDDING & ENGAGEMENT
Front: "Marriage is a bond that is unbreakable except by two-thirds of the population."
Inside: "But it's you top-third couples that give the rest of us hope."

That last one would definitely get you pulled from the happy couple's future invitaton lists. But maybe that's not such a bad thing. You can see more samples of the rejected cards here.