In a clever bit of purpose-driven attention-grabbing, e.l.f. Beauty’s continued deep understanding of their customer base took a big step out of the cosmetics world and into social activism.
Doubling up with tennis legend Billie Jean King to launch the “Serving Facts” campaign to quite literally serve a series of tennis balls at office workers that have been specially inscribed with some rather shocking facts about the lack of representation of women and ethnic minorities on corporate boards in the U.S.A.
As little as 27% of U.S. corporate boards feature representation by women, but the average corporate board is 88% white, according to a 2023 analysis of the BoardEx Non-Executive Director Database.
With e.l.f. being one of a handful of publicly traded U.S. companies out of 4,200 with genuine representation (two-thirds women and one-third diverse), the campaign aims to raise awareness of a severe imbalance in corporate America.
Kory Marchisotto, chief marketing officer, said, “e.l.f. Beauty believes it is important that it reflects the diverse communities we serve, and that means everywhere. We believe the inclusivity of our board of directors and executive team has been a driving factor in our extraordinary business results over the past five years.”
Linked with the brand’s association with the National Association of Corporate Boards to create an accelerator program to train and generate visibility for 20 women and diverse board-ready candidates, this is an interesting one from a brand looking to enact genuine change on behalf of a customer base that cares about the issue.
