What Happens to a Brand’s Reputation When It’s Cancelled on TikTok?

Patrick Ta Beauty’s Controversy: The Impact of Black Creators Speaking Out

Five days ago, influencer Avonna Sunshine took to TikTok to express her anger with Patrick Ta Beauty for not compensating her for the content she created for the brand. In the video, Avonna sat on the floor, snapping apart all the Patrick Ta Beauty products she owned. The video quickly went viral, accumulating over 7.9 million views, 740k likes, and 14k comments.

In the days that followed, a wave of videos from other Black creators surfaced, sharing their negative experiences with Patrick Ta Beauty. The brand and its founder, Patrick Ta, responded with an apology video.

This got me thinking: what actually happens to a brand when it’s publicly called out or “canceled”? Does this truly change consumer sentiment? And when a Black creator speaks out about mistreatment, does it affect the brand’s bottom line?

These were the questions I set out to answer in today’s Substack by analysing over 3,000 TikTok comments surrounding the controversy. My aim is not only to offer insights into the effect…