E.l.f. Beauty launched it’s newest campaign and initiative to encourage company board workers to verify their gender and race on the Change The Board website, for this two year mission:
E.l.f. Beauty’s peak in popularity has included excellent dupe products, skincare in makeup and affordable prices that remain in our budget-friendly baskets. Their new campaign seems to go one step further, calling out the injustice of boardrooms favouring old, white men of this particular name.
In a shocking discovery, e.l.f. Beauty’s research shows there are “So Many ‘Dicks’ So Few of Everyone Else,” with e.l.f. encouraging “more diversity across U.S. corporate boards.”
The ingenious campaign demands to be seen, posted across Wall Street, New York, asking why there are so few diverse hires in a market that predominantly targets women, of every race and skin tone.
The hilarious play on words points out one cheeky fact that boardrooms cannot escape: the lack of diversity hires – particularly Black women. E.l.f’s Change The Board campaign sets out to raise awareness of the substantial employment gap that favours hires nicknamed “Dick” over Black women of any name at all.
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e.l.f. Beauty Chairman and CEO, Tarang Amin, states his belief in the company’s “unique Board of Directors” being the reason for their overall business growth. He said: “One of the most important things a diverse board does is bring 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”.
“A diverse board also helps us stay culturally relevant among multiple affinities. It’s the unique combination and diverse school of thought that helps us lead innovation and brand demand in the industry”.
An interesting development since acquiring beauty mogul and model Hailey Beiber’s Rhode Beauty just over a month ago, e.l.f. has now shared its commitment “to help double the rate of women and diverse members added to corporate boards by 2027”.
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Working with agency OBERLAND, the beauty giant completed its survey exploring the race and gender of each person serving on director boards of American-based companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ.
By researching biographies, images, public statements and public filings available to the general public, they proved that a surprising 566 men on these company boards were named Richard, Rick, or Dick.
They also noticed that, compared to ‘just the Dicks,’ Black and Asian women of any name barely scratch the surface of White, male employees – with only 806 Black Women and and even lesser 774 Asian Women on boards.
Significantly, there were only 283 Hispanic women on these same boards, and 19 times more men named Dick than the sole 29 women of Middle Eastern descent. Tragically, the report highlighted that a minuscule three Native American women serving on boards, compared to the 566 Richards and Dicks.
Kory Marchisotto, the Chief Marketing Officer at e.l.f. spoke on the company’s mission to diversify boardrooms, saying: “Diverse representation isn’t limited to within the four walls of our company. We want to normalize diversity – and if it takes some ‘e.l.f.ing’ in-your-face advertising to do it, we’re happy to put it on some of the biggest screens you can imagine”.
She added that the aim of the data and campaign is “to invite others with us on this journey to drive real impact and help corporate boards more accurately reflect the world around us”.
Launched in May, 2025, the global beauty giant asks existing board members to visit Change The Board and “verify and update their gender and race to ensure the database is the most accurate representation of corporate boards in the U.S,” all in the name of inclusivity and progression.
