Estée Lauder Chief Gets Cancelled for Racist Social Media Posts
The luxury fashion brand Estée Lauder has fired its senior executive John Demsey, after he was found to have posted a meme on his personal Instagram account that contained a racial slur and a joke about Covid-19, enraging social media users and bringing massive pressure against the brand to cancel him.
The company announced his exit Monday morning in a memo to staff that was posted to the cosmetics company’s website shortly after The Wall Street Journal reported on his termination. Mr. Demsey “was informed he must leave the company, effective this week,” the memo said. An Estée Lauder spokeswoman said he agreed to retire.
Mr. Demsey, 65 years old, served as executive group president and oversaw some of the company’s biggest brands including MAC and Clinique. He had been with the company 31 years.
“The decision is a result of his recent Instagram posts, which do not reflect the values of The Estée Lauder Companies, have caused widespread offense, are damaging to our efforts to drive inclusivity both inside and outside our walls, and do not reflect the judgment we expect of our leaders,” the company said its memo.
A meme posted last week to Mr. Demsey’s Instagram account pictured a spoof book cover of the children’s TV show “Sesame Street.” The post, which contained the N-word with some letters replaced with asterisks, no longer appears on Mr. Demsey’s account.
Mr. Demsey apologized last week, calling the meme racist, on an Instagram post, saying he was “terribly sorry and deeply ashamed,” and that he didn’t read the meme before posting it. He couldn’t immediately be reached for comment on Monday.
The Estée Lauder veteran was instrumental in tapping a diverse range of women as MAC ambassadors or collaborators, especially Black music stars, including Rihanna, Mary J. Blige and recently Saweetie.
His Instagram account has more than 73,000 followers and nearly 51,000 posts that include fashion images and numerous memes that range from jokes about heiresses and poorly applied eyeliner, to ones about being unmotivated and depressed.
The New York-based company last week suspended Mr. Demsey without pay for an indeterminate amount of time. Estée Lauder reported his total compensation as more than $9.6 million in the year ended June 30.