E.l.f.'s campaigning to get more women in boardrooms

There are too many Dicks in boardrooms.

No, literally.

A study conducted by e.l.f. Beauty and agency Oberland found that of the 4,200 publicly traded U.S. companies, men named Richard, Rick, or Dick serving on the boards outnumbered women and diverse groups.

In fact, there are 566 Dicks. Compare that to only 806 Black women, 774 Asian women and 283 Hispanic women on corporate boards. There are actually 19-times more men named Dick than the 29 women of Middle Eastern descent on corporate boards.

As you can see, this is indicative of a huge issue in corporate America. (Don’t even get me STARTED on the fact that there are only 3 Native American women.)

That’s far too many Dicks for anyone’s liking. So e.l.f. is on a mission to change that.

Their So Many Dicks campaign will primarily take place on digital screens at transportation hubs around Wall Street. The displays invite other companies to get in touch to find out how a diverse board can help drive profitability. (I mean, that’s the most important thing here, right?).

The out-of-home ads were accompanied by a launch commercial in which tennis legend Billie Jean King serves tennis balls at a board meeting. Each ball contains illuminating facts. For example, the average board in the U.S. is 88% white.

But e.l.f. doesn't just say they care about putting more women in boardrooms.

E.l.f. is 1 of 4 American publicly traded companies whose board of directors is two-thirds women and one-third diverse. The company even has an initiative called ‘Changing the Board Game’. Its goal is to double the rate of women and diverse candidates added to U.S corporate boards by 2027.

The beauty brand also partnered with the NACD (National Association of Corporate Directors) to sponsor 20 diverse candidates as a part of their Accelerator Program and get them ‘boardroom-ready.’

Talk about doing the mahi.

For e.l.f.’s chief executive and chairman, Tarang Amin, the company’s efforts for executive and board diversity are super personal. He immigrated to the U.S. as a child from Kenya. He then spent most of his career at large corporations, including P&G and Clorox.

Hearing that diversity in corporate leadership was a matter of ‘availability of talent,’ early in his career bothered him, he told Inc. Australia.

‘One of the points I wanted to make was that there’s immense talent out there in terms of women and people of color,’ Amin said. ‘And the data is clearly there: Diverse teams perform better than homogenous teams.’

And the commitment to diversity is clearly working for the brand. E.l.f. saw sales grow 85% during the holiday quarter, on top of 49% sales growth in the year-ago period. In fact, the brand totally blew Wall Street estimates out of the water.

And e.l.f.'s gaining popularity for all the right reasons.

CEO Amin told Marketing Dive, 'A diverse board also helps us stay culturally relevant. [It brings] in multiple viewpoints to make better decisions. At e.l.f. Beauty, empathy is part of our business model because it brings us closer to our community and the things people in the community care about.'

E.l.f. isn't only standing out because of their stance on bringing diversity into corporate America. The brand's also won over Gen-Z and Alpha consumers with their viral TikTok marketing and their high-quality dupes of in-demand products at a fraction of the price.

Seems they’ve got the formula – for good business and good makeup.

-Sophie, Copywriter