By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Estée Lauder (NYSE:EL) stock traded 2% lower Monday after the company fired Executive Group President John Demsey over offensive Instagram posts.
“This decision is the 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,” Executive Chairman William P. Lauder and President and Chief Executive Officer Fabrizio Freda said in a joint letter posted on the company’s website.
Demsey was with the company for 31 years and oversaw some of the company’s biggest brands, including MAC and Clinique.
According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, the offensive meme 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 Demsey’s account.
Demsey apologized last week, calling the meme racist in an Instagram post. He said he was “terribly sorry and deeply ashamed”, and that he didn’t read the meme before posting it.