Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Snow, Pets and Guffaws.

After reviewing (and laughing at) (I mean "with") many, many, many pet birthday card ideas, the preliminary round of judging is now done (!). You guys sent us over 7,000 ideas for our mere 67 spots. So, if you win, know that your Fido ran a tough race. (Really.)

And is it ever a tough race. (Especially for the couple of tortoises who entered.) (Guess who has a close 3-year-old friend?)

Hand-picked Hallmark art directors, editorial directors and photo stylists were all on hand (having battled a bit of a snow storm this morning) to look at your fun and funny animals. They laughed, they guffawed, they giggled, and they scratched their noodles at the wide and wonderful array of takes on the pet birthday card theme you all shared. And they all left the "bowling alley" smiling.

You are a funny bunch of pet-havers and pet-card-makers. Thanks for sharing.

"Judgy"

P.S. Yes, we totally made the pictures below too low-res for you to see the submissions ahead of time. I know, we're such stinkers.

P.P.S. We aren't going to be posting "favorites" ahead of the big reveal on 3/3 because we don't want to give any one finalist an unfair advantage over the others come voting time.

20 comments:

tina said...

do we get "extra credit" for blogging?

you would think out of 7000 entries (limit one) there would be more people blogging to express (and admit to) their impatience, anticipation, excitement and growing insanity about having to wait until march 3!!! (besides me and a handful)

so, how many entries are left after the preliminary judging?

do you have percentages of dogs to cats to birds to various other pets?

tina said...

i'll answer my own question about how many entries are left...67...right?

duh.

Unknown said...

I can't wait either!! If they already know, why do we have to wait until March? I know my cat Vinny doesn't want to wait. :)

jude said...

Does that mean the finalist won't know till March 3rd too?
jude

doxie lover said...

I too think we should get the results earlier if they know them. I can not wait to see if "my little stinker" is a finalist.

Thy said...

The "little stinker" remarks in both the blog and the comments are SO funny because I'm finding that so many people call their pet that (including us)! Of course, we have many other nicknames as well, but Stinker is the most commonly used one.

Drat! graphichick and I have been foiled again with the small pictures! You Hallmark-ers and Judgies are just too wily for us. We will have to think of other ways of finding out who the finalists are. I heard this guy, Kip, had a "Time Machine" he wanted to sell at a discount. Hmmm...................

Unknown said...

7000 entries?!?!!! Woah, that's a lot. But I guess with a prize as amazing as this I should have known how large the prize would be.

If you read the rules in the entirety, you will see that finalists will be notified as early as February 15. I'm sure they need to verify rights to pictures and sign releases before determining if that card is in fact a finalist.

I, too, wonder what the pet breakdown is. I wonder how many repeated greetings they had. I'm sure there were many 'party animal' references.

Can't wait!!

Unknown said...

Feb. 15th? Very nice - I didn't read that closely. :) I checked out the major specifics, got excited and didn't read closely.

I must admit I'm pretty excited - how amazing would it be to have your pet on the front of a Hallmark card?!

Nest said...

We thought we were so clever calling our little rescue mutt Stinky, as she often smells of her organic wet food. Yes, even when we eat a slice of pizza for dinner, the mutt gets ORGANIC! Hey, she was homeless once, she deserves it.

Megan said...

I cannot wait!!!

Fallon Carmichael said...

the waiting is killing me.....

Susie said...

Wow 7,000 entries, I said there is no way my Tick Tock has a chance, then again its not your traditional Dog or cat Its my 1 year old Senegal parrot. All I can say is Good Luck to all.

Are there many bird entries? I'm curious

Vote4Me said...

This is SOOOO Exciting !!! 7000 entries sure is ALOT !! I will be crossing my fingers and toes for my Sweet Frog Dog " Zoey ". I wonder if they will be calling or e-mailing the Lucky 67 ? Good Luck Everyone !

Unknown said...

Can't wait to see the winning designs.

I wonder how it will work if the grand prize pet is a horse or a llama? Can they really fly that pet there?? Oh well, not to worry because I sure don't have a big pet. I'll stick with the portable dogs and cats.

Vote4me, it says the winners will receive a FedEx package between 2/15 - 2/25. Have the decisions already been made?

The excitement mounts. Hope we get a clue as to the breakdowns of the animals. Surely there must be at least 1 lab, pug or yorkie in there. And just to clarify.... I have none of those dogs, but always see them in advertisements and usually can't resist!

tina said...

rumor has it, that a guy named "noah" entered a picture of all his pets...so if he wins, he'll probably have to use his own transportation to get to kansas city. hmmm. wonder how that would work?

good question about large pets though. or even multiple pets. guess we will know in a week or so.

HemiHound said...

Congrads on such a great turnout...7,000 entrants WoW excellent!
Don't envy your job having to pick 67 out of 7,000. We are so excited & can't wait to see the finalist. We are wearing a path in the floor...waiting...waiting...
All good things come to those who wait...especially if you don't have a choice lol...are we there yet! Good Luck To All!

Tisha said...

Well I can tell you there is at least one Yorkie entered...my Princess. I'm sure there will be more pugs than any other dog breed. They tend to make the funniest faces.

I check the website everyday just to see if the judges changed their minds and posted early. No luck thus far.

Good luck to everyone!

Anonymous said...

Make that 2 yorkies, LaLa! My Murray just couldn't resist entering this contest! Good Luck!

KC.TBone said...

A little insider info from the walls of Hallmark to alleviate some of your excitement...

The entries have been narrowed down, and are the 67 selected yet? NOPE, NOT YET! Next Tuesday we're having some "celebrity" pet expert judges come in to help select so we'll be contacting the lucky 67 after that to confirm their eligibility, photo releases and all that jazz. So that's why we have to wait until March 3rd - believe you me we will tell you as soon as we can! Plus we have to collect info from the finalists and design the website so everyone can vote!

A little more insider info (I just can't help myself, can I?): we did get a wide variety of animals (and breeds for that matter) but dogs won in terms of number of entries, that's for sure!

Okay, enough inside info for now, we've got more work to do and the days are ticking by! GOOD LUCK TO ALL! :)

Toby said...

I am sooo excited to see the finalist! Just waiting for the next update.