CLEVELAND – For Lori Schwartz, a happy mom with a decade of wedded bliss under her belt, the greeting card featuring a bloodied, ripped out heart was perfect.
“It’s Valentine’s Day, so here’s a card with a heart inside,” it read. “I’d tell you whose it is, but the less you know, the better.”
“My husband and I never get nice cards for each other. We’re not into sentiments,” Schwartz said while perusing an aisle of “anti-Valentine’s Day” cards at an American Greetings Corp. store. “I expect to get something just as bad, but I may have one-upped him this year.”
Sensing a growing trend – and more potential customers – American Greetings has started a new line of expressions for lovers who’d rather be big goofs than big flirts, for singles not struck by Cupid’s arrow and those with general disdain for Feb. 14, too.
A sampling of anti-Valentine’s Day card messages:
* Outside: A metallic purple card featuring a silver heart under the international “no” (circle-with-a-slash) symbol.
Inside: “Valentine’s Day: When hell and holidays collide.”
* Outside: A drawing of a young woman under the heading “I promise, you won’t be alone forever.”
Inside: Drawings of dozens of felines. “I know how much you like cats. Happy Valentine’s Day.”
* A photograph of a handsome man beside what looks like an online dating profile that appears to be perfect – “Why should I spend my Sundays watching the big game, when I could be giving you a rubdown?” His goal is “to really help make the world a better place, once I’m paroled in 2026.”
With night club parties and bar-hopping bus tours, the anti-Valentine’s Day crowd is proving to be an opportunity.
Popular this season are anti-Valentine’s Day events, including a “Love Bites the Hand that Feeds It” cabaret show by the Lesbian/Gay Chorus of San Francisco.
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