The Society of American Florists and its members actively worked to promote positive messaging around Mother’s Day flowers, reaching out to nearly a dozen businesses and news outlets that discouraged flower buying or put down flowers to promote other products.

In the weeks leading up to Mother’s Day, SAF asked the following companies and media outlets to reconsider their disparaging marketing approach and news coverage of flowers — and suggested promoting products and services based on their own merits:

• Online learning platform, MasterClass, which used the headline, “Flowers wilt. Passion won’t,” in an email to promote their seminars as the perfect Mother’s Day gift.
• Porto’s Bakery & Café, a California-based business which advertised its baked goods by saying, “Avoid Last-Minute Flowers. These Last Longer Than Flowers.”
• Trump Hotels, which sent an email promotion for the Trump National Doral Miami property with the subject line, “Skip the Flowers and Treat Mom to a Miami Spacation!”
• Matdalee Studio, a Los Angeles-based jewelry wholesaler and brand management company, which promoted Mother’s Day gift offerings with an email that said, “…at least it’s not flowers.”
• National movie theatre chain Cinemark, which used the email subject line, “Flowers are nice. Movies are better,” to advertise their gift cards and movie club membership program.
• Dolce Mare, a dessert shop in Marco Island, Florida, which captioned a social media post, “Sure, flowers are nice… but she’d rather have chocolate, trust me.”
• Reserve Bar, an e-commerce provider of high-quality wines and spirits, created an online Mother’s Day gift guide which included that said, “Trade the bouquet of flowers for a keepsake gift she’ll cherish.”
• Smartwatch and fitness company, FitBit, which sent a promotional email that said, “Flowers? Try a new smartwatch or tracker.”
• National Geographic, which sent an email that borrowed from Miley Cyrus’ song, “Flowers.” The email, in an effort to promote subscriptions to their monthly magazine, said, “She can buy herself flowers, give mom National Geographic.”
• Fox 7 News in Austin, Texas, published a story on its website about the launch of Krispy Kreme’s “Minis for Mom” doughnuts collection, which included the copy, “Forget flowers. Doughnuts are the perfect gift for Mother’s Day.”

Although SAF didn’t receive a response from any of the companies or see them take corrective action like some have in the past, it is still important to point out that disparaging flowers isn’t a sound marketing tactic, says SAF’s marketing and communications manager Elizabeth Daly.

“It’s our hope that our outreach, even if it didn’t prompt corrective action this time, will influence their marketing decisions in the future,” Daly says.

SAF also reached out to the Detroit Free Press, which published a story warning about online flowers scams on the rise ahead of Mother’s Day, citing several instances where flowers were ordered but not delivered, or were significantly smaller than what was pictured, or they cost twice as much as initially stated.

SAF CEO Kate Penn responded to the writer with some advice — which was added to the article — on how flower buyers can “order from a florist in the area where the flowers are being delivered and enjoy the convenience of buying flowers online.” Penn suggested that consumers search for florists in a specific city online and scroll past the sponsored ads to business listings, where they can also check out reviews and the store’s website. “[It is] very convenient and it ensures you’re ordering from the flower shop that will be creating the floral gift,” Penn said in her response to the writer.

Amanda Jedlinsky is the managing editor of SAF NOW.