Ulta Beauty is attempting to mend fences with customers following a public outcry over its newest “tone-deaf” email promotion.
On Sunday, the cosmetics behemoth sent out an email for a Kate Spade scent that inadvertently referenced to the designer’s death. “Come hang with Kate Spade,” Ulta’s offer to shoppers said, alongside a promotion on its beauty goods.
Spade committed herself by hanging herself in 2018. She was 55 years old at the time.
On Monday, the cosmetics behemoth issued an apology to The Washington Post in a statement.
“Ulta Beauty recently sent an email featuring Kate Spade New York fragrance with an insensitive subject line and for this, we sincerely apologize,” the rep said. “Mental health is a very serious, important issue in this country, and not something we would ever take lightly. We apologize to the Spade family, our Kate Spade New York brand partners and to our guests. Thank you for understanding as we strive to do better.”
I cannot believe I got this email today. Is this some kind of sick joke? How insensitive and absolutely tone deaf. Apparently nobody in marketing at Ulta remembers how Kate Spade died. Disgusting. @ultabeauty #suicideawareness #stopthestigma #katespade pic.twitter.com/L7jsqQcoWc
— Tracy Vinton (@tracy_vinton) May 2, 2022
The reference outraged fans, who took to social media to vent their displeasure.
“How disgusting to use for clickbait,” wrote one, believing the message was written intentionally.
“I cannot believe I got this email today,” one person wrote on Twitter. “Is this some kind of sick joke? How insensitive and absolutely tone-deaf. Apparently nobody in marketing at Ulta remembers how Kate Spade died. Disgusting.”
Another chimed in, “Just got this email … this is wrong of Ulta Beauty … Kate Spade committed suicide by hanging herself.”
“Ulta Beauty corporate probably having a MELTDOWN realizing somebody sent out a promo email with the subject line Come hang with Kate Spade … somebody’s losing their job,” a user added.
”Ulta Beauty f—ked up with their Kate Spade email. Not only did I get a metric f—k ton of emails all night, but the headline was BULLS—T. Ulta gives no care to the mental health community, Kate Spade or her family. Gross,” a fan wrote.
As May marks Mental Health Awareness month, another noted, “Kate Spade was amazing and an icon. Your lack of attention to detail is sad at best, negligent and hurtful at worst. Do better. #MentalHealthAwareness.”
Criticizing the critics currently disseminating the promo, one insisted, “Sharing that awful ulta beauty x kate spade email is honestly worse than ulta sending it in my opinion because someone in the comments who would’ve never seen it otherwise literally said they were triggered by it. that person should’ve just emailed ulta.”
At the time of the fashion icon’s death, her family sent out a statement saying: “To most of the world, she was Kate Spade, the beautiful embodiment of her brand and a glamorous cultural icon.”
Kate Spade and her husband Andy Spade founded the company in the early 1990s, putting up their own money to launch their line of preppy, colourful handbags, which they hawked at trade shows for years until they were picked up by stores like Barneys and Saks — all without the help of celebrity endorsements, which so many brands rely on these days.
Kate Spade’s handbags have taken the globe by storm.
In 2006, the partnership sold their Kate Spade investment to Neiman Marcus, which had already established itself as an iconic brand that had extended beyond bags to encompass other accessories, clothes, and home items.
At the time of Kate’s death, Andy issued his own statement, noting that “there were personal demons she was battling.”
“Kate suffered from depression and anxiety for many years. She was actively seeking help and working closely with her doctors to treat her disease, one that takes far too many lives,” he wrote in 2018.
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