Garcia Media Life

There is a card for every occasion and so it seems only appropriate Hallmark is tapping into the recession market to offer a little sympathy to those suddenly facing unemployment. I’ve been there.

Some of these cards are fairly amusing.

“Don’t think of it as losing your job….think of it as a time-out between stupid bosses.”

Or: “I just dare somebody to steal my identity now.”

There are somber ones too, though I think the humorous ones would have been nice to get while I was in my own state of panicked limbo just a couple of years ago. This does open a fairly large potential arena for other cards that address all the possible nuances of economic distress people are feeling these days.

There’s also rampant underemployment:

“So sorry about your new job as a Wal-Mart greeter!”

“Now you can have fries to go along with that new, tiny little paycheck!”

There’s the long-term unemployed:

“Don’t worry! Congress is working on the off-setting cuts to pay for your extended unemployment benefits…in between fundraisers and golf outings with lobbyists!”

There’s the couple hundred thousand folks who were ripped off by Bernie Madoff:

“Oooh. Heard about that whole Madoff thing…join the club! Price Club!”

There’s losing your job to outsourcing:

“Sorry your job went overseas! Have you considered moving to suburban Shanghai???”

And two all-purpose recession-oriented sympathy cards dripping with irony:

“Imagine someone trying to make a profit from your unemployment! If you’re reading this- we just did!”

“Look on the bright side, you could be writing Hallmark Greeting cards!”