• by Ray Schultz , May 3, 2022

Retailer Ulta Beauty has drawn harsh feedback for a marketing email inviting consumers to “Come hang with Kate Spade.” 

Kate Spade, the founder of the Kate Spade brand, hanged herself in 2018 at age 55. 

“I cannot believe I got this email today,” tweeted Tracy Vinton. “How insensitive and tone deaf. Apparently nobody in marketing at Ulta remembers how Kate Spade died. Disgusting.”

Compounding this feeling is the fact that May is Mental Health Awareness month. 

The company has apologized for the email.

“Ulta Beauty recently sent an email featuring Kate Spade New York fragrance with an insensitive subject line and for this, we sincerely apologize,” the company says in a statement.   

It continues: “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.” 

The circumstances of the debacle are unclear, except that the writer of the email presumably was unaware of the details of Spade’s suicide.  

Spade left the fashion brand in 2007 with husband Andy after selling to Neiman Marcus.