e.l.f’s “So Many Dicks” Campaign Is Calling for Corporate Change

Beloved beauty brand e.l.f. is calling on corporations throughout the U.S. to diversify it's boardrooms by giving more women and people of color executive positions. With its new "Change the Board Game" initiative, the brand has taken over screens on Wall Street and throughout New York City to showcase its "So Many Dicks" marketing campaign. As part of the initiative, e.l.f. and Oberland Agency joined forces to pull data on the race and gender of every member serving on a board of directors of U.S.-based companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ.

The results showed that "men named Richard, Rick or Dick outnumbered women and diverse groups" by a landslide, according to the brand's press release. In fact, the company's research revealed there are twice as many men named “Dick” serving on corporate boards as there are Hispanic women by any name. The study also found that there are 19 times more men named "Dick" than the 29 women of Middle Eastern descent on [corporate] boards – and there are only three Native American women board executives in total.

The beauty brand is taking the charge to change this by pledging to double the number of women and diverse individuals appointed to corporate boards by 2027. The first step is by bringing awareness to the cause and making data accessible via the "So Many Dicks" campaign, making the vast gap in diversity within the boards of the 4,429 publicly traded companies in the U.S. known.

 

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Secondly, e.l.f. has created a partnership with the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) to help sponsor 20 women or diverse professionals through a training program called NACD AccelerateTM. The two-year program will create a pipeline for underrepresented executives to prepare to join a corporate board. The program will aid in accelerating the brand's mission to double the U.S.'s current 3% growth rate of women and diverse candidates on corporate boards.

The cosmetics company is currently "one of only four U.S. publicly traded companies with a board that's two-thirds women and one-third diverse," per a press release. It cites this diversity as a large factor in the brand's 20 consecutive quarters of net-sales growth and encourages other brands to follow suit. “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," says Tarang Amin, e.l.f. Beauty Chairman and CEO.

e.l.f.'s research database, findings and partnerships are further explained on the brand's website.

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