Laurie Lam from e.l.f. Beauty wants you to know that there are “So Many Dicks.” Did you know that there are more Richards, Richs, and Ricks, aka Dicks, on the boards of publicly traded American companies than Hispanic and Middle Eastern women? And that for every two men named Dick, there are only three Asian women, and the same ratio goes for Black women.
Serving the makeup company as Chief Brand Officer, Lam discussed the provocative campaign at Advertising Week New York 2024 with Lisa Topol, Chief Creative Officer of OBERLAND, who helped create the ads. Using male names to out gender inequality in leadership is not new: Until 2023, there were more CEOs named John than women as a whole in S&P 500 index companies.
Aside from the humorous double meaning in the e.l.f. campaign, the focus on names makes these types of statistics especially human and memorable. That’s also why despite the beauty company’s main clientele being women, the ads show the faces of men, representing supposed board members named Richard and the name’s many variants. Taking over electronic screens at Wall Street, it’s important to note that the phrase used is “So Many Dicks” and not, as Topol said it is often misstated as, “Too Many Dicks.”
“It’s the ‘So Many Dicks’ campaign, and it’s actually a big difference, because we’re not saying we don’t want Dicks on board,” Topol explained. “It’s about making room at the table for everyone, because that’s when innovation happens. That’s when better thinking happens. It’s when all points of view work together. It is not about one versus the other. It really is about allyship, and I’m sure, as we’ll talk about with e.l.f., it is built into the e.l.f. DNA as every eye, lid, and face.”
The Business Case for Diversity
While it is a bold campaign taking a clear stance on corporate diversity, Lam told the audience that e.l.f.’s CEO reported almost 100% positive sentiment around the campaign. In a country with backlash against diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, it’s astounding that this somewhat suggestive campaign focused on gender is something that nearly everyone could get on board with.
Speaking of boards, Lam credits the e.l.f. board for being a model in inclusion. Its board is made up of 74% women and 44% individuals who identify from diverse underrepresented groups.
“Out of 4,100 U.S. publicly traded companies, we’re actually the only one,” Lam added. “We are the only one with that board composition […] So almost equally as impressive is the fact that e.l.f. is sitting on the backing of 22 consecutive quarters of net sales growth. And more compelling than that — stay with me — is that out of 274 publicly traded companies, we are one of five that have had 22 consecutive quarters of growth that have averaged over 20%.”
While there is actually a Dick on its board, e.l.f. provides yet more evidence for the now-old adage: Diversity does increase sales in thriving capitalist markets.
For the company that moves the most units in the beauty industry, the long game is to not be the only one.
Lam shared with the audience, “We democratize beauty, and it goes back to our founder’s mission to make the best of beauty accessible. We also want to democratize what equity on boards could look like, because when you change the composition of your board, you’re actually putting people who are in the highest seats of decision-making power into those seats, and when they reflect the community, they are better decisions made to serve the community.”
Beyond Gender: The “Not-So-White Paper”
Having boards that reflect the communities goes beyond female empowerment. Earlier this month, e.l.f. Beauty partnered with the largest HBCU North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University to release the “Not-So-White Paper.”
At this time, 88% of boards consist of white people. The report found that only when there are three or more women or people from diverse backgrounds is there enough of a quorum to increase the performance of the company. Moreover, boards with three or more women and/or people from diverse backgrounds have a lower likelihood of large-scale discrimination lawsuits.
And so the beauty of the campaign is that it also gets the intersection of identities, focusing on women of specific racial makeups and ethnicities, with the second part of the tagline being “so few of everyone else.”
Creating Inclusive Conversations
Focusing on the benefits, rather than the lack, of diversity allows these types of conversations to become less argumentative and exclusionary. What the “So Many Dicks” campaign definitely does is make the conversation about board composition relevant and in your face, so much so that it comes up with friends, colleagues, and even the younger generation.
“You’re not saying someone’s bad; you’re saying we welcome everyone,” said Topol. “That’s part of why men have responded to it so well [in addition to] women, younger people, [and] older people, because you’re creating a conversation again that doesn’t feel accusatory in any way. And that’s really important when you want to create change: to invite everyone. It’s okay to be a Dick, but we just need more of everyone else at the table.”
Cover credit: Advertising Week by Shutterstock
