This story contains discussions of suicide.
CONTENT WARNING
Kate Spade, founder of iconic fashion brand Kate Spade New York, sadly died by suicide on June 5, 2018. Ulta sent out an email advertisement on May 1, 2022 for their newest fragrance by Kate Spade New York, but a seriously poor choice of words may have doomed their collaboration from the start.
"Come hang with Kate Spade," the beauty brand wrote, coming off as an incredibly insenstive reference to suicide. One fan on Twitter asked if the email was "some kind of sick joke," while another wrote, "There's no way that the entire marketing and executive team did not realize the trauma this ad would cause to Kade Spade's loved ones and fans."
On May 2, Ulta issued an apology via email, saying their ad had "a very insensitive choice of words and for that we are very sorry," but "teams are human," and "this was truly an error with no intent to do harm." May also happens to be Mental Health Awareness month, which makes this mistake truly unfortunate.