ALEXANDRIA, VA – During major floral holidays, many businesses choose to speak negatively about flowers in their marketing campaigns, using email subject lines like “Dump the flowers” and “Skip the Flowers,” or directly comparing their products to flowers in a negative light. As the voice of the floral industry, the Society of American Florists (SAF) responds to these businesses and urges them to reconsider their messaging.
In the lead-up to Mother’s Day, SAF addressed several of these negative campaigns and suggested that companies focus on the merits of their own products and services rather than using negative comparisons that unfairly target the floral industry and discourage customers from buying flowers.
One business SAF reached out to apologized and committed to changing its strategy. Easy Plant, a plant and pot company, acknowledged their misstep. “Thank you so much for taking time out to share your feedback about our recent Mother’s Day ads with us,” the company said in an email to SAF. “We didn’t mean to offend or insult the floral industry and intended for our message to be a bit more tongue-in-cheek, but looking at the ads now, we can definitely appreciate how we missed the mark.” Easy Plant assured SAF that they would pass the feedback along to their marketing team and committed to doing better.
SAF also reached out to:
- WTFNotebooks, a customizable notebook company, which sent a promotional email with the subject line, “Dump the flowers this Mother’s Day.” Copy within the email read, “With Mother’s Day landing on May 12th, it’s the perfect time to show appreciation for all the amazing mothers in our lives. No, we’re not talking f**king flowers ”.
- Spa and Salon business, Urban Nirvana, which used the subject line, “Skip the Flowers. She wants a GIFT CARD to Urban Nirvana!” and email copy, “Skip the flowers. Gift them pure relaxation this Mother’s Day.”
- Stationary retailer, Fresh Cut Paper, which posted a caption on Facebook that read, “Give a gift that lasts longer than flowers. Choose from a wide selection of pop-up paper flower bouquets.”
- Eros, a brand of Wi-Fi systems designed to provide coverage throughout the home, advertised using the email subject line “Skip the Flowers – Get More Bandwidth.”
- Global restaurant chain, Domino’s, which sent an email with the subject line, “Why bring flowers when you can bring Domino’s?”.
- Virgin Experience Gifts, a leading provider of experience gifts, promoted their Mother’s Day gift collections with an image of dead flowers and the text “Let’s Do Better.”
About The Society of American Florists
The Society of American Florists is the association that connects and cultivates a thriving floral community through training, education, marketing resources and advocacy. Our vision: The power of flowers in every life. For more information, visit SAFnow.org.
