NEW YORK (AP) — The Hallmark Channel’s decision to pull, then reinstate a commercial that featured a same-sex couple kissing shows how controversy can generate more publicity than simply ignoring it.

The company also didn’t help matters by reversing its decision following the backlash.

“It’s hard to keep everyone happy, but flip-flopping doesn’t help,” said Allen Adamson, co-founder of the marketing consultancy Metaforce. “These are difficult issues to navigate but when you’re going to make a call one way or another, make sure you understand the ramifications. You only want to pull the Band-Aid off once.”

The debacle ultimately made a winner out of Zola, the wedding-planning website whose ads a conservative advocacy group didn’t want shown on Hallmark.

“For Zola, this is Christmas times 100,” said Laura Ries, president of marketing firm Ries and Ries. “Nobody ever heard of Zola, and now everybody knows it and loves it.”

Paul Argenti, Dartmouth College professor of corporate communication, added that the debacle “shows you if you know who you are, what you’re doing and stand by your beliefs, you’ll be better off in the end.”

The Hallmark Channel, owned by Hallmark Cards Inc., is Crown Media Family Networks’ flagship cable channel. It is known for family-friendly programming, particularly made-for-TV Christmas-themed movies.

That reputation prompted Hallmark to pull four Zola ads with same-sex couples after getting a complaint from a conservative group with a stated mission to “fight against indecency.” Hallmark allowed two ads with opposite-sex couples from Zola, though Zola pulled those after the same-sex ads were nixed.

In one of the pulled ads, two brides stand at the altar and wonder aloud whether their wedding would be going more smoothly if they had used a wedding-planning site like Zola. The lighthearted ad ends with the two brides sharing a quick kiss on the altar.

In an interview over the weekend, Hallmark spokeswoman Molly Biwer said the company felt “it was in the best interest of the brand to pull them and not continue to generate controversy.”

Instead, Hallmark faced criticism on Twitter from celebrities, including Ellen DeGeneres and William Shatner. “Isn’t it almost 2020? What are you thinking?” DeGeneres tweeted.

Hallmark was also mocked on “Saturday Night Live.” Netflix tweeted stills from a TV show and movie that it labeled “Titles Featuring Lesbians Joyfully Existing And Also It’s Christmas Can We Just Let People Love Who They Love.”

By Sunday, Hallmark had reversed its decision. In a statement, Hallmark Cards CEO Mike Perry said Crown Media was “agonizing” over the decision. “Said simply, they believe this was the wrong decision,” he said.

That, in turn, prompted calls for a boycott of the Hallmark Channel by the group that made the original complaint, One Million Moms. It accused Hallmark of caving to the LGBTQ community and portrayed the reversal as a betrayal to conservatives.

Hallmark Cards, the Kansas City, Missouri, enterprise started in 1910, has moved quickly before to respond to any flare-ups, such as when it removed a gift wrap from circulation after one person complained of seeing a swastika in its pattern. In March, it cut ties with actress Lori Loughlin, one of the so-called “Christmas Queens” who star in its holiday movies, after her arrest in a college admissions scam put the family-friendly network and extended Hallmark brand in uncomfortable proximity to a national scandal.

The group behind the latest complaint, One Million Moms, is an offshoot of the conservative American Family Association. It has tried to implement many boycotts, including one in 2008 targeting Hallmark Cards when it started selling same-sex wedding cards. It has also tried to start boycotts against Target, “Toy Story 4” and other entities it deems to be LGBTQ friendly.

Adamson said Hallmark’s backlash was different from what exercise bike maker Peloton recently faced over its tone-deaf ad. That ad, widely mocked on social media, showed a man giving a reluctant wife a Peloton bike for Christmas. Ryan Reynold’s Aviation Gin quickly capitalized on the debacle, showing the same actress out with friends trying to get over a split.

“The Peloton was painful for the company, but not a reflection of management values,” Adamson said. “In Hallmark’s case, this decision was initially and now a reflection of what they stand for. You really want to not change that story. If you believe and stand for something, that should be your North Star.”

Bill Pearce, assistant dean at the University of California, Berkeley’s business school, said Hallmark was ahead of the same-sex wedding issue when it introduced same-sex greeting cards in 2008, before gay marriage was legalized.

“Any goodwill engendered from the LGBTQ community is squandered and I don’t think they made any friends on the other side of the issue either,” Pearce said. “It’s a classic blunder by indecision.”

KAMPONG CHAM, Cambodia (Xinhua) — Sam Him, a 78-year-old farmer in Cambodia’s Kampon Cham province, used to be in blindness because of cataracts in his eyes and could not even walk normally without the company of a family member.

His life changed last year after Chinese doctors removed the cataracts and restored his vision.

“Now, my both eyes can see clearly, see even small ants. I’m very happy and satisfied with my life,” he told Xinhua on Tuesday.

“I’d like to thank the Chinese medical team for helping restore sight for Cambodian patients… they have brought me new hope, and I will never forget their kindness,” he said.

Sam Him was one of the over 6,000 patients helped by the 19-month China-aided Belt and Road Cataract Blindness Eradication Campaign, which came to an end on Tuesday.

The closing ceremony of the project at the Kampong Cham Provincial Health Department was attended by about 800 people, including government officials, local authorities, health officials, recovered cataract patients and students.

In his speech, Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Yim Chhay Ly expressed his profound gratitude to the government and people of China for funding the project and to the Chinese medical team for providing free checkups and surgeries for Cambodian cataract patients.

“This project has brought big benefits to patients and their families,” he said. “It has importantly contributed to relieving hardship for cataract patients in Cambodia.”

He said the successful completion of the project is a new testament to closer friendship and cooperation between the two countries and peoples.

The campaign, launched in Cambodia in May 2018 by Chinese entities and with cooperation of the Cambodian Ministry of Health, offered a 19-month free surgery for all cataract patients in Kampong Cham province.

Under the campaign, China sent a group of ophthalmologists, along with two large vehicles equipped with modern medical equipment, to the Kampong Cham Provincial Hospital for cataract surgeries.

Leung Chun-ying, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and chairman of the Belt and Road Hong Kong Center, said that the project has truly demonstrated the spirit of international cooperation and people-to-people connectivity.

“Restoring eyesight to over 6,000 patients in one campaign is an outstanding achievement,” he said. “Each and every patient has a touching and heart-warming story to tell. As a result of this campaign, the friendship between the peoples of China and Cambodia is stronger.”

Apart from helping cataract patients to regain their vision, local ophthalmologists were also trained to perform cataract surgery independently, said a project’s report, adding that all nurses at the hospital are now well-versed in the pre-and-post operation procedures and eye care for patients.

Chinese Ambassador Wang Wentian said such a project was vital to helping reduce poverty and deepening people-to-people bonds between the two countries.

“The project has not only provided new hope to cataract patients in Kampong Cham province, but also contributed to further promoting China-Cambodia relations under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative,” he said.

Cambodian Minister of Health Mam Bunheng said under the project, China donated two mobile eye treatment centers worth about 900,000 U.S. dollars to the hospital for cataract surgeries.

“During the project, the Chinese medical team had helped more than 6,000 Cambodian cataract patients restore their eyesight,” he said. “They have brought smiles and happiness to the patients and their family members.”

Por Norin, head of the ophthalmology unit of the Kampong Cham Provincial Hospital, said the project greatly benefited cataract patients in the province.

“It helps a lot because during the past 19 months, the surgeries were made free of cost,” he told Xinhua. “If charged, the lowest fee for a surgery on one eye is between 300 U.S. dollars and 400 dollars.”

“Until now, 6,208 patients had their cataracts removed. If calculated this figure into cash, it is a great amount,” he said.

Norin said during the project, Cambodian doctors and nurses had learned a lot from their Chinese counterparts and they are now able to use medical equipment and materials on the eye mobile treatment centers to operate on cataract patients independently.

“We’d like to express our sincere and heartfelt thanks to the Chinese government for sending Chinese medical teams, materials, and equipment to help our people,” he said.

Zeng Siming, an ophthalmologist and the leader of the Chinese medical team for the project, said he was very proud to have helped Cambodian cataract patients restore their vision, and hoped that through this humanitarian work, the people-to-people relations would be further deepened.

A cataract is a condition where the natural lens in a person’s eye grows opaque. There are various things that can cause cataracts including an injury to the eye or too much exposure to bright sunlight.

In Cambodia, cataracts are the main cause of blindness. According to a national estimate, about 0.32 percent of the country’s 16 million people have cataracts.

The next cataract blindness elimination project will be carried out in southeastern Prey Veng province, according to Leung.

NAIROBI (Xinhua) — Kenya on Tuesday launched the Nairobi-Naivasha Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) cargo service and an inland container depot (ICD) that are expected to revolutionize transport of bulk cargo to the east Africa nation’s hinterland and neighboring countries.

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and Chinese State Councilor Wang Yong, were among dignitaries who graced the launch of the SGR phase 2A freight service and dry port located in the resort town of Naivasha.

“Today, we mark the commencement of the freight train services to the Naivasha Inland Container Depot; thus making an unequivocal statement that we as a people are ready to ascend,” said Kenyatta during the launch in Nairobi.

The freight service launch came after the Nairobi-Naivasha SGR passenger service was inaugurated on October 16 this year. The 120km Nairobi-Naivasha railway is an extension of the Chinese-built modern railway that connects Kenya’s coastal port city of Mombasa to the capital Nairobi. The Mombasa-Nairobi SGR was launched in 2017.

Kenyatta said the commencement of freight transport along the Nairobi-Naivasha SGR corridor that is part of the proposed Mombasa-Nairobi-Kisumu/Malaba SGR project, will stimulate investments and economic growth in the Kenyan hinterland.

“We equally remain hopeful that other economic and commercial ventures will be established along the line, which together will trigger the creation of productive employment, and in the process reduce poverty and inequality across the whole country,” said Kenyatta.

He said that operationalization of the SGR phase 2A freight service and Naivasha’s dry port will boost Kenya’s status as a transport and logistics hub while enhancing regional integration.

Kenyatta said that two trains will on a daily basis serve the Naivasha ICD while two shipping lines had already committed to delivering their bulk cargo directly from the port of Mombasa to Naivasha.

Chinese State Councilor Wang Yong, also the special envoy of Chinese President Xi Jinping, congratulated Kenya for the launch of the new freight transport service.

He said the full launch of the Nairobi-Naivasha SGR services marked another milestone in the history of railway construction in Kenya and Africa in general. It also marked another major achievement of the China-Kenya and China-Africa cooperation on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Wang said the project has showcased the mutual benefits and shared development through China-Africa cooperation, adding that China will adhere to the principles of sincerity, real results, affinity and good faith, and the approach of upholding justice while pursuing shared interest in China-Africa cooperation.

“We will continue to promote Sino-Kenyan cooperation such as facility connectivity within the framework of BRI to build a closer China-Africa community of shared destiny,” said the envoy.

James Macharia, Kenyan cabinet secretary for transport and infrastructure, said the commissioning of Nairobi-Naivasha freight service and inland container depot, will revolutionize transportation and handling of bulk cargo.

“The launch of SGR freight service presents a safe and reliable mode of transporting bulk cargo. It will enhance regional integration and competitiveness of our economy,” said Macharia.