Alan Sawyer
Ulta Beauty issued an apology following an email campaign gone wrong. A marketing message was sent to its customers with the tagline of “Come hang with Kate Spade,” the late fashion icon died by suicide in 2018, at age 55.
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The rest of of the email — which many readers did not get to — was promoting Kate Spade’s perfume, Sparkle.
The brand issued an apology email on Monday, telling customers that they were sorry for their “insensitive choice of words” that were used in the previous email.
It read:
“In an email we recently sent featuring the kate spade new york brand of fragrances, a very insensitive choice of words was used and for that we are very sorry. We have the utmost respect for the kate spade brand and the joy it brings to the beauty and fashion industries. At Ulta Beauty, our teams are human, and this was truly an error with no intent to do harm.
We’re keenly aware that May is Mental Health Awareness Month. Mental health is a very serious and important issue in this country, and not something we would ever take lightly. We are working internally to ensure something like this never happens again.
We apologize for this upsetting mistake. Simply put, this is below our standards. Thank you for understanding as we strive to do better.”
A representative for Ulta also told the TODAY program in a statement that it released, “Ulta Beauty recently sent an email featuring kate spade new york fragrance where a very insensitive choice of words was used by mistake. For this, we are deeply sorry. This was a mistake, does not reflect our values and we are taking steps to ensure it does not happen again.
“And it was certainly not reflective of the deep respect we have for Kate Spade, her family and the kate spade new York brand and brand teams. Mental health is a very serious issue and we apologize to the Spade family, our brand partners and our guests as this mistake may have implied otherwise. We are committed to doing better.”
Spade had hanged herself in 2018, and a housekeeper found her around 10:20 a.m. ET in her home. At the time a note was reportedly found that indicated her cause of death to be suicide.
If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts or are experiencing a mental health crisis you can dial the 24/7 National Suicide Prevention hotline at 1-800-273-8255 or go to SuicidePreventionLifeline.org.
