NEWS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Jenny Stromann (800) 336-4743 jstromann@safnow.org
SAF Promotes Flowers and Florists at Valentine’s Day
ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Feb. 27 – Erlene LeBorgne doesn’t hesitate when she hears negative floral publicity. “It’s difficult time-wise – the week before Valentine’s Day, so I pass them along to SAF,” says the owner of Rosemont Floral in Portland, Maine, who has reported at least a dozen instances. As the voice of the industry, the Society of American Florists (SAF) promoted professional florists and flowers this Valentine’s Day by responding to four dozen instances of harmful publicity and doling out floral facts to reporters. Responding to Harmful Publicity LeBorgne usually contacts SAF first, but when she heard disc jockeys say “flowers die” in Vermont Teddy Bear Company promotions on a radio station with which she advertises, she took matters into her own hands. She picked up the phone and called her ad rep. next page
Valentine’s Day 2006……………………………………………………………….2 The ad rep agreed there’s no excuse for negative advertising. The station is having internal talks so this doesn’t happen again, LeBorgne says. On a national level, SAF contacted the Vermont Teddy Bear Company’s Vice President of Marketing Irene Steiner and asked for a response to why the company relies on comparison advertising and whether it would change its positioning. At press time, Vermont Teddy Bear had not commented. Vermont Teddy Bear was not the only company bad-mouthing flowers in their Valentine’s Day ads. Top offenders were:
• Danbury Mint. A mailer read: “Why give flowers which quickly fade, when for the same price you can give a fine piece of jewelry to last a lifetime?” A print ad stated: “A dozen roses has its charms, but someone special deserves a dozen rubies.” • Radio Shack Corp. A TV commercial said: “Don’t buy candy or flowers ...” • AirTran. An e-mail read, “For the price of sending flowers, you can send you!” SAF encourages advertisers to eliminate negative references to flowers and promote products on their own merits. While none of the advertisers SAF contacted during the 2006 holiday pulled or changed disparaging ads, some may reconsider their approach in future campaigns. Case in point: Last year, the most-talked about negative floral ad was the Hershey’s TV commercial “Who wants roses? Roses say I’m sorry.” This holiday, SAF did not receive a report of harmful publicity by Hershey’s.
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Valentine’s Day 2006……………………………………………………………….3 Handling the Media SAF is not only the industry’s watchdog for negative publicity, but, as the national floral industry trade association, SAF is also the resource the media turns to for Valentine’s Day floral facts. This Heart’s Day, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, the Associated Press newswire and The Chicago Tribune were among the top newspapers that splashed their pages with SAF statistics.
More than 50 articles included stats, as well as gift-giving advice from SAF’s consumer Web site, www.aboutflowers.com, such as:
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Number of roses produced for Valentine’s Day 2005: 180 million Men buy 74 percent of Valentine’s Day roses. Imports account for 70 percent of the fresh flowers in the United States.
For more information, contact Jenny Stromann at (800) 336-4743; jstromann@safnow.org.
### The Society of American Florists is the association leader for all segments of the floral industry including wholesalers, growers and retailers. SAF is proud to provide marketing, business and government services for more than 12,000 participants in the U.S. floral industry.