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…
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