Alexi McCammond: Teen Vogue advertisers pull out over editor’s controversial past tweets

Major advertiser suspends campaign on same day incoming editor apologises for ‘perpetuating stereotypes’ of Asian and LGTBQ people in series of tweets from 2011

Alex McCammond as a former political reporter, speaking with MSNBC in October 2020 (MSNBC)

A retailer has pulled its adverts from Teen Vogue amid criticism of the fashion website’s incoming editor in chief, Alexi McCammond, for making anti-Asian and anti-LGBTQ comments on social media.

Fashion retailer and Teen Vogue advertiser Ulta Beauty said it was suspending its advertisements from the Conde Nast publication’s website with concerns around diversity.

“Diversity and inclusion have always been core values at Ulta Beauty,” a spokeswoman for the firm said on Thursday.

“We stand against racism in all forms and as we’ve publicly shared in our social channels, we stand in unity with the AAPI [Asian American and Pacific Islander] community,” the statement added. “We believe it’s important that our partners share our values.”

More than twenty members of staff posted a statement on Twitter on Monday last week saying they’ve written to Teen Vogue’s management in support of readers and others alarmed by the tweets.

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The staff noted that Ms McCammmond’s comments from 2011 were “racist and homophobic,” and resurfaced at a time of “historically high anti-Asian violence and amid the ongoing struggles of the LGBTQ community.”

The offending tweets were afterwards deleted by Ms McCammond, who Conde Nast named as the new editor in chief for the fashion publication about a fortnight ago. She was formerly a political journalist for Axios.

On Thursday — the same day Ulta Beauty announced it was pulling adverts from Teen Vogue — Ms McCammond, who is Black, apologised for the comments.

She said the remarks were “offensive, idiotic” and apologised for “perpetuating stereotypes” of Asian and LGTBQ people, while promising to serve those groups as the publication’s incoming editor in chief from 24 March.

While Teen Vogue stood by Ms McCammond, former editors for Conde Nast spoke out against the 27-year-old’s past comments on Twitter over the course of the past week.

Elaine Welteroth, the former editor in chief of Teen Vogue, told CBS on Wednesday that Ms McCammond’s tweets “and the sentiments behind them were racist and abhorrent and indefensible, period.”

“And I think at a time like this when there is a call for accountability around anti-Asian sentiment and just racist, violent actions against Asian people, we need to speak up,” Ms Welteroth added.

Ulta Beauty, meanwhile, has faced accusations in the past of failing to address issues of racial profiling of customers in its stores.

It promised a number of changes including diversity and inclusion training for staff, as well as doubling the number of Black-owned brands available from their stores throughout the US.

The Independent has approached Conde Nast for further comment.

Additional reporting by the Associated Press.