Ulta Issues Apology After ‘Insensitive’ Kate Spade Email
Ulta Beauty issued an apology Monday after sending an “insensitive” email Sunday evening concerning the late Kate Spade.
The original email was sent on the first day of Mental Health Awareness Month, and featured a poor choice of words that customers thought were in reference to Spade’s death by suicide in 2018.
“Simply put, this is below our standards,” Ulta said in an email.
On Sunday, May 1, the first day of Mental Health Awareness Month, Ulta Beauty sent out a marketing email to promote an online sale. Only this one featured a subject line with a “very insensitive choice of words.”
“Come hang with Kate Spade,” the headline for Sunday evening’s email read—an extremely poor subject line to say the least. Many noted that it came off extremely distasteful as Kate Spade died by suicide in 2018. Following the triggering headline, Ulta’s send referenced an online promotion that featured a free three-piece deluxe Kate Spade gift set with any $50 purchase. Below the promotion, Ulta Beauty included a section that read “your Kate Spade starter kit,” listing a few of the brand’s most notable fragrances.
Consumers were outraged by the email headline. One Twitter user wrote: “Is this some kind of sick joke? How insensitive and absolutely tone-deaf.” Another user noted the poor timing of the email: “Whoever wrote the incredibly crass email headline at Ulta for the Kate Spade event yesterday also managed to do it on the first day of Mental Health Awareness Month. An ignominious start by demonstrating the carelessness people tend to have around this topic.”
“We’re sorry,” Ulta Beauty wrote in their email subject line sent Monday afternoon. “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.”
Following the outrage, Ulta Beauty swiftly sent out an apology. “We have the utmost respect for the Kate Spade brand and the joy it brings to the beauty and fashion industries,” the brand wrote. “At Ulta Beauty, our teams are human, and this was truly an error with no intent to do harm.”
Ulta Beauty also recognized in their follow-up email that May is Mental Health Awareness Month, writing that “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.”
The retailer also issued a more direct apology to the Spade family and Kate Spade brand partners, as well as to the guests of Ulta Beauty. “Simply put, this is below our standards,” Ulta Beauty expresses. “Thank you for understanding as we strive to do better.”
If you or someone you know is at risk, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or text HOME to 741741 to message with a trained crisis counselor from the Crisis Text Line for free.
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