by Seroll Burt
January 27, 2025
Way to take a stance, e.l.f!
One of the beauty industry’s giants, e.l.f. Beauty is making a bold statement in support of diversity, equity, and inclusion with campaigns like “So Many Dicks” while other companies dial back on DEI initiatives, CNN reported.
As one of two publicly traded companies hosting a board of more than 78% women and 44% people of color, e.l.f. launched a provocative campaign in 2024 highlighting that there were close to as many men named Richard, Rick or Dick serving on public U.S. company boards as women altogether. Standing for “eye, lip, face”, the company is exposing the business narratives of diversity efforts as DEI initiatives are under attack. “There’s nothing wrong with being Richard, Rick, or Dick, but we wanted to shine a light on ‘let’s give other people a chance’ because we’ve seen the benefits in our own business,” CEO Tarang Amin said.
The statistics surrounding the 36,957 existing board members throughout 4,429 publicly traded U.S. companies are eye-opening. According to Businesswire, 566 men named Richard, Rick, or Dick (Dicks) have served or are serving on public company boards. Only 806 Black Women outnumber those men. There are 19 times more men with the name Dick than the 29 women of Middle Eastern descent that sit on these boards.
The Oakland, California company is standing behind DEI due to the company’s employee base and loyal following of younger – and diverse customers – who support their efforts. While companies like Meta, Amazon, and Target – where e.l.f. products are sold – have announced dial-back tactics on DEI due to demands by the Trump-Vance administration, e.l.f has been able to reap the benefits of standing firm. In early 2024, Bud Light’s parent company, A-B InBev, lost approximately $1.4 billion in sales as a result of backlash to a brief partnership with a transgender influencer.
However, it has been the opposite for the beauty brand, having its stock increased by over 700% since 2020 — all without having a DEI team on staff. Amin says the company’s success is based on bringing in different perspectives. The company employs close to 500 employees, with 75% being women and 40% persons of color. e.l.f. also features transgender and non-binary models as part of its diversity and inclusion strategy. “Diverse voices actually help us because they’re bringing different perspectives,” Amin said.
“Companies that abandon their diversity efforts risk losing out on incredible talent that has different points of view and that add perspective to a company.”
The comments on the Instagram post reflect how proud their customer base is. @havocbeautyandbrains celebrated the brand’s “…approach…The tenacity. The accuracy.” “Just amazing,” she wrote.
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