TARRANT COUNTY, Texas — Editor's Note: The video above reports the company Kyte Baby being based in Dallas. The company is based in Euless, Texas.
They say there's no such thing as bad publicity.
But Amy Power, the president and CEO of the Dallas-based PR firm The Power Group, disagrees.
"There is a such thing as bad publicity," Power said Monday. "In the court of public opinion, that is where brands are created and destroyed, through cancel culture."
Specifically, Power was addressing the current plight of Kyte Baby, the Euless-based baby clothing company that has been facing some backlash court of public opinion these last few days.
The controversy surrounds a Kyte Baby employee named Marissa Hughes, and the company's reaction to her adoption journey. According to a GoFundMe post meant to help cover the costs they've amassed throughout the process, Hughes and her partner have endured numerous ups and downs along their three-year path to welcoming a child into their family.
They've undergone IVF treatment, faced major complications and lost three babies during this stretch.
Finally, in December, the couple said yes to adopting a baby boy born nine hours away at 22 weeks old. The baby, according to Hughes' post, only weighed one pound at the time she and her partner agreed to adopt their son.
Making matters worse was the way Hughes' employers reacted to this news. According to a TikTok post shared by a woman claiming to be Hughes' sister, Hughes asked her employer -- Kyte Baby -- if she could work remotely while her son was in the NICU. Her employer denied that request; worse, that video claimed, it let her go for asking.
Once the Internet and its fury caught wind of that news, Kyte Baby attempted to calm the situation.
First, its CEO, Ying Liu, posted a scripted apology video to the company's branded TikTok account.
"I wanted to hop on here to sincerely apologize to Marissa for how her parental leave was communicated and handled," Liu said. "It was my oversight that she didn’t feel supported."
In the wake of that post, though, the Internet uproar only continued, with many on social media calling Liu out for not being sincere in her post and, in turn, demanding a boycott of Kyte Baby's products.
Responding to that backlash, Liu issued a second apology.
“The comments were right," Liu said. "It was scripted. I memorized it. I basically just read it. It wasn’t sincere. This was a terrible decision. I was insensitive and selfish. [I] was only focused on the fact that her job had always been done onsite... Thinking back, it really was a terrible mistake. I own 100% of that."
Even so, the backlash continues.
Power said Kyte Baby erred in not remembering who its audience is.
"It's a misalignment between actions and words," Power said. "You have a company dedicated to serving the needs of new mothers -- and yet it is not serving the needs of a new mother, [who] is an employee."
Power said the situation likely should have been resolved privately in the first place. But, instead, the company is now likely operating in crisis mode.
"In every crisis, there is an opportunity," Power said. "The opportunity here is to redefine policies to sit down and have conversations with employees."
In her second apology video, Liu promised exactly that. She said she will review and improve her company's maternity leave policies.
She additionally said she is offering Hughes her job back -- with the remote option and paid benefits.
Hughes, in her own video about the controversy, said she appreciated the changes coming to Kyte Baby as a result of the Internet's outrage. But, she added, she won't be returning to work for Kyte Baby any time soon.
"While we don’t think it will be appropriate for me to go back, we’re really encouraged to hear that there will be some changes made for current and future employees at the company," said Hughes.
Note: The following video was uploaded in July 2023