First, be careful with using the hash tag in a CFML page. Your inline style on the <p> element not only has an incorrect number of hexadecimal characters (you can have 3 or 6 characters, not 5), you also got to be careful when you specify the hash itself. Also, there is no such CSS property as "font-color". I believe you want to use "color", ie:
<p style="color: ##ccc;">Hello <cfoutput>#firstname#</cfoutput>. It is so nice to see you.</p>
Try that and let me know what you get.
