Having An Affair? New Greeting Cards For Adulterers

[matcom]

<snip>

BETHESDA, Md. — One morning at breakfast, Cathy Gallagher told her husband she wanted to start a line of greeting cards for adulterers.

There was a pregnant pause. And then he said, "I think it's a great idea."

Lucky for him, Gallagher doesn't plan on patronizing her own business. "You don't have to be a murderer to write a murder mystery," she says.

Nor, apparently, does one need to be unfaithful to write a Christmas card that says, "As we each celebrate with our families, I will be thinking of you."

Gallagher says her Secret Lover Collection of 24 cards is the first line exclusively for people having affairs, and she expects hot sales. She says half of married people have had affairs (though some studies show the figure to be far less — more like 15% of married women and 22% of married men, according to the University of Chicago). From former President Clinton's relationship with "that woman" to shenanigans on TV shows like "Desperate Housewives," affairs are out in the open.

"Look at the soap operas. It's all about forbidden love," Gallagher says in her Bethesda office, where the walls are painted red and pink. "Look at how many people on soap operas are having affairs. That's real. And I think that's why this is so scary — these cards are real, and for a lot of people it hits very close to home."

But is America ready to see cards for secret lovers rubbing elbows with cards for Grandma's birthday? In these morals-conscious times, "Desperate Housewives" may be a hit, but one of its stars, Nicollette Sheridan, was chastised for a promotional spot in which she dropped a towel from her body in front of a pro football player. And broadcasters were hit with record fines last year for indecency on the airwaves.

Gallagher has felt part of that backlash. Some retailers have refused to carry the cards for fear of alienating longtime customers, while others think their clientele would be ashamed to purchase such a card. Gallagher has also received e-mails accusing her of endorsing bad behavior.

"She's just making money out of other people's misery," says Robin Sawyer, a public health professor and human sexuality expert at the University of Maryland. "I think most of us would agree that infidelity is a negative thing, so we're now selling cards to celebrate a negative thing."

Gallagher, who won't give her age but appears to be somewhere north of 40, doesn't take a position on whether affairs are good or bad. She notes simply that they exist. And, like any good capitalist, when she saw a market opening, she went for it. She says consumers, not the morality police, will decide if her business succeeds or fails.

"People make choices," she says. "I'm not making a choice for them. People make choices. And by the time they buy this greeting card, they're already involved deeply in the affair…. This is an entrepreneurial venture. And this is an untapped market. That's the bottom line."

She has already printed 100,000 of her cards and is filling orders for retailers across North America, including boutique stores and hotel gift shops. And starting soon, the cards can be bought from her website, secretlovercollection.com. The site went up in May and has already received 60,000 hits.

http://www.latimes.com/news/custom/showcase/la-et-cards12jul12,0,4597162,print.story

[Shell Beau]

1. Oookay!

[Coventina]

2. Wow......I just......have no words

I never thought of an adulterous relationship as being the kind that would involve greeting cards.

Just trying to wrap my head around that.

Plus, how stupid is it to hand someone "evidence"? Do you open it, read it, say "Thank you, my little fuck buddy!" and then tear it up and toss it on the fire?

[xultar]

3. I know the bitch is a republican. How about the sanctity of marriage.