Hallmark Cards Inc., Kansas City, MO, has no plans to release new products such as holiday postcards in reaction to the anthrax sent by envelope.
“There hasn’t been a consumer demand,” said Linda Odell, a spokesperson for Hallmark. “Greeting cards are not considered suspicious mailings.”
Odell added that the company has no historical knowledge of people using greetings cards in mail-based attacks.
According to Odell, Hallmark will not be changing or discontinuing any of its offerings that offer dimensional items, such as buttons or deflated balloons, which might bring the envelope unwanted attention. Nor does it have any plans to remove confetti from those of its cards that contain it, although she added that, “I personally wouldn’t do that.”
Most of the changes Hallmark has made to its offerings came after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, but before the current anthrax mailing scare. The company pulled a few cards it felt might be in questionable taste, such as one with a baby holding a tower.
“A King Kong kinda thing,” Odell said, adding that “the tower wasn’t one of the Twin Towers.”
One enhancement to the product line the company made was a series of boxed cards for the holiday, which the company plans to release Nov. 10. The images offer messages of American strength, such as a wreath draped with red, white and blue ribbon or a snowman surrounded by reed white and blue stars.
The cards were “considerably out of the norm of our production cycle,” Odell said. Normal cycle time for a card to move from concept to presence in a store is between 12 and 18 months.
While it is extremely unlikely that Hallmark will expand its postcard offerings for the 2001 holiday season, Odell indicated that the company is sensitive to consumer desires and would change its strategy to meet its market. But to date postcards “haven’t sold very well,” she said.
Hallmark will also be launching a “safe mail” campaign, designed to reassure recipients of its cards, according to reports.
Most of the guidelines follow those set by the U.S. Postal Service, such as addressing the envelope in the sender’s handwriting and including a name and return address in a prominent place on the envelope.
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