The archive · Marketing & Growth · Marketing decision · 2024–2025
e.l.f. Beauty counts the Dicks on US boards — 'So Many Dicks' pushes boardroom diversity
e.l.f.'s data census found 566 men named Dick on US boards — outnumbering whole demographic groups — and put that fact on Wall Street screens.
e.l.f. Beauty
What it had to solve
e.l.f. Beauty — whose own board is two-thirds women and one-third diverse — wanted to push US public companies toward inclusive boards at a moment when many brands were pulling back from DEI. The campaign goal was to double the rate at which women and diverse members are added to corporate boards by 2027.
How it works
In 2024, e.l.f. Beauty wanted to push US public companies toward more inclusive boards. The company's own board was two-thirds women and one-third diverse — one of only four US public companies at that level — so it had standing to argue that diverse leadership is good business, not just good ethics.
With OBERLAND, e.l.f. manually researched the race and gender of nearly 37,000 directors on US-listed boards. The finding that fuelled 'So Many Dicks': 566 men named Richard, Rick or Dick sat on those boards — roughly twice as many as all Hispanic women, and 19 times more than the 29 women of Middle Eastern descent. There were only three Native American women.
The campaign put that data on Wall Street: out-of-home creative ran on digital screens at Fulton Street Station and The Oculus in New York's Financial District, alongside social content and a public database, as part of the wider 'Change the Board Game' initiative with the National Association of Corporate Directors and Billie Jean King's 'Serving Facts' films.
The deliberately un-comfortable name turned a spreadsheet into a cultural moment. A later digital phase targeted executives through GumGum's contextual platform and ran a 16% engagement rate against a 5.46% benchmark. The work took a Silver Lion in Creative Data at Cannes 2025, made the Titanium shortlist, and won a One Show 2025 Fusion Pencil.
Why it lands
- The name 'So Many Dicks' guaranteed attention and made the headline statistic — more men named Dick than entire demographic groups — impossible to ignore.
- The research was first-of-its-kind and done manually, so the claim was a dataset, not an assertion; nobody could dismiss it as marketing.
- Placing the message where executives actually commute and read made the provocation land on the people with the power to change it.
- e.l.f.'s own board, two-thirds women and one-third diverse, gave the campaign credibility that a pure activist brand would have lacked.
What it did
The OOH wave drew global media attention, the digital phase ran a 16% engagement rate against a 5.46% benchmark, and the work earned a Silver Lion in Creative Data at Cannes 2025, a Titanium shortlist, and a One Show 2025 Fusion Pencil.
What you can take
A taboo-breaking name plus proprietary data gets a systemic issue talked about: the shock made people look, the dataset made the argument irrefutable, and e.l.f.'s own diverse board made it credible.
Since then
The campaign ran through 2025 and beyond, with e.l.f. continuing 'Change the Board Game' alongside NACD board-accelerator sponsorships and Billie Jean King's 'Serving Facts' films. It won a Cannes 2025 Silver Lion in Creative Data and a Titanium shortlist, and OBERLAND was named Ad Age's Purpose-Led Agency of the Year. The work became a benchmark for using brand media to force a systemic corporate conversation.
Sources
- So Many 'Dicks' So Few of Everyone Else: e.l.f. Beauty Encourages More Diversity Across U.S. Corporate Boards
- E.l.f. says corporate America has 'So Many Dicks' and not enough diversity
- Behind E.l.f. Beauty's Data-Driven Campaign To Call Out Gender Imbalance In Boardrooms
- Cannes Lions Creative Data Winners & Shortlists 2025
- Cannes Lions Titanium Winners & Shortlists 2025
spotted an error? The archive wants to know.
Your turn
You just read one. Describe the brief you are staring at, and see who has been given the same problem.
Free account · 3 free questions · no card