Revenge is best served on Valentine's Day

Next to Christmas, Valentine's Day is the most saturated, consumer-friendly, over-exposed buying day of the year, and now American Greetings have gone one step further to satisfy every inch of the “Hallmark Holiday” market.

American Greetings, a greeting card company based in Ohio, for the first time began marketing anti-Valentine's Day cards for those who are bitter, alone and have shunned the traditional romantic occasion.

“The demand for ‘anti-Valentines' has risen steadily over the past few years, so we've added several new designs to our normal Valentine's Day line that span the range of feelings held by many singles at this time of year,” said Alana Campana, Valentine's Day business expert at American Greetings. “Not everyone is in a relationship, and those who aren't attached want to celebrate with other single friends on Valentine's Day. Many women see it as the perfect opportunity for some much-needed female bonding.”

According to the company, the series of cards are to be given to single friends, ex-lovers or just those who are opposed to idea of Valentine's Day.

Internet-based companies have also cashed-in on jilted-lovers this season. Payback.com, whose slogan is “revenge at its best,” has tapped into the expanding market of vengeful — ex's by offering up everything from anonymous emails to mailing dead fish and flowers to former Valentines. A bouquet of dead flowers can range from roses or just the stems and cost from $19.99 to $24.99, meanwhile a stinky, dead fish in the mail sets the bitter-back $19.99. The site also specializes in gag lottery tickets, gift cards and bad-breath packages, which let the offender know that have a bad case of halitosis.

Poisonpen.com also celebrates anti-everything by offering “sick cards for healthy people.” One anti-Valentines appropriate cards read, “For the man who has everything…” on the inside “except me!” Or “Life's a bitch…” on the inside “and so are you.” Or for the really resentful-ex try the card that reads, “I'm sorry…” on the inside and “I ever met you” when opened.

For those who are still in the dark about the consumer consumption of this holiday, the average person will spend just over $100 on their loved-one, while in 2006 alone consumers spent $13.7 billion on Valentine's Day. American Greetings generates annual net sales of approximately $1.8 billion of birthday, anniversary, holiday and Valentine's Day cards.