Campaign Spotlight: So Many Dicks
When E.l.f. tapped Oberland to help tell the story of the diversity on its own board, as part of its “Change the Board Game” initiative, it asked for a simple deliverable: an infographic video. But Lisa Topol, managing partner & executive creative director at Oberland, which bills itself as a purpose-driven advertising agency, had something bigger in mind.
“[I thought,] ‘You think it’s important and I think it’s important. … So let’s blow it up and get people talking about it,'” she said.
“There was an old study that was redone about 10 years ago where they found that there were more CEOs named John than there were women CEOs,” Topol said, referring to her research about diversity on boards. “Thinking about it that way humanized it for me.”
That led Topol to wonder whether the same stat was true of Richards — aka, Dicks. “That sparked this aim to humanize the story by making it provocative and putting it in terms that will get people talking,” Topol said. “That way, maybe we could actually change things.”
Oberland decided to present the idea to Kory Marchisotto, E.l.f.’s CMO, and her team. “I was like, they might hate us or maybe they’ll fire us. … But I knew it would be a really powerful way to tell the story. And I cannot tell you how quickly they said, ‘We’re doing that,'” Topol said.
As a next step, Oberland enlisted a third party to conduct research on just how many Dicks there are on the boards of the 4,200 publicly-listed companies. After about a year, Oberland turned out many learnings, including that, for example, on publicly-traded boards, there are twice as many men named “Dick” than there are Hispanic women.
For its part, out of 4,200 publicly traded U.S. companies, E.l.f. is only one of four to have a board that is two-thirds women and one-third diverse, according to the company.
The campaign went live in mid-May 2024, following the creation of over 100 assets. Ad buys included month-long subway station takeovers across NYC’s Financial District, including the Fulton Street and Oculus stops.
The goal was to hit two audiences: consumers and business leaders, Topol said. “You’ve got to tell businesses that [equity on boards] is important and that diversity equals profitability,” she said. “And [we had to find a way] to get consumers [interested], because if consumer demands change, companies change, even if they’re not particularly moral companies.”
Through the campaign, the company shared information including research from McKinsey. One asset stated, “Boards with more gender diversity are 27% more likely to outperform less gender diverse boards. And boards with more people of color are 13% more likely to outperform less diverse boards.”
The campaign resonated. Companies like Ulta Beauty, Ipsy, Grande Cosmetics and General Mills’ Fruit Roll-Ups commented on the dedicated social posts, and the campaign was covered by publications including Forbes, Fortune, Fast Company and Hypebae. In mid-July, E.l.f. CMO Kory Marchisotto shared on LinkedIn that a Harris Poll on brand perception found that, in the wake of the So Many Dicks campaign, more people described E.l.f. as “visionary.”
According to Topol, the campaign resonated because it’s not about excluding or insulting “Dicks,” or anyone else. “We love people named Richard — they’re on our [own] board,” she said. “This is about inclusion. It’s okay to be a ‘Dick,’ we just need more of everyone else.”
Oberland has also worked on other notable E.l.f. campaigns, such as it’s “Show Your(s)e.l.f.” documentary series, which debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival.
