The tagline 'So many dicks, so few of everyone else' has been splashed throughout New York's financial district in Lower Manhattan. It's calling attention to the under-representation of women and minorities atop U.S. companies. - REUTERS
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00:00 This is a provocative ad campaign that's raising eyebrows and awareness in New York City.
00:07 The tagline, "So many dicks, so few of everyone else."
00:12 U.S. beauty company Elf says the aim is to call attention to the underrepresentation
00:17 of women and minorities heading American companies.
00:22 According to its campaign, there are roughly 550 men named Richard, Rick or Dick serving
00:28 on U.S. corporate boards.
00:30 That is out of some 37,000 total spots.
00:34 Elf Beauty's chief brand officer Lori Lamb says the suggestive campaign was designed
00:39 to get more people talking about who is and isn't sitting in corporate boardrooms.
00:45 We actually decided to craft one that was going to be attracting, was newsworthy, and
00:51 was actually going to be able to create impact and inspire others.
00:53 By talking about and highlighting the fact that men with the name Richard, Rick or Dick
00:59 actually outnumber the number of groups of underrepresented people.
01:03 Within the Fortune 500, there are about a little less than 10 percent of women are CEOs.
01:09 Jennifer McCollum is the president of Catalyst, a nonprofit group that tracks and researches
01:14 gender equality in the workforce.
01:17 Here's the problem.
01:19 Women are entering the workforce at the same rates as men.
01:23 So you start at about 50/50.
01:25 At that very first level of leadership, when they become front line leaders, it immediately
01:31 shifts to 60/40 men to women.
01:35 So the problem starts early.
01:36 And that's why it's exacerbated all the way up to the CEO level.
01:40 According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, women make roughly 84 percent of what men earn
01:46 on average.
01:47 The Pew Research Center found in 2023 that, quote, "the gender gap in pay has remained
01:53 relatively stable in the United States over the past 20 years or so."
01:57 At Elf Beauty, Lam says the board is composed of two-thirds women and one-third diverse
02:02 representation.
02:03 Through our research, we learned that boards that are actually gender diverse are 27 percent
02:08 more likely to outperform financially those that are not gender diverse.
02:13 On top of that, we also learned that ethnically diverse boards are 13 percent more likely
02:18 to outperform boards that aren't as well.
02:20 So it's good for business.