Exclusive: The Story Behind E.l.f.'s Controversial Matt Rife Campaign

Business of Fashion

19 hours ago

E.l.f. Cosmetics' ads usually make a splash. The affordable cosmetics maker has decried the lack of gender parity in the boardroom with a sketch campaign called 'So Many Dicks', tapped the actress Jennifer Coolidge at the peak of her 'White Lotus' fame for its first superbowl commercial, and even sent the astronaut Amanda Nguyen into space with its products in April.
Its most recent campaign, launched on Monday, a parody of the once ubiquitous ads run by the Buffalo, New York law firm Cellino & Barnes, starred the drag queen Heidi N Closet and the comedian Matt Rife as attorneys defending clients against overpriced beauty products. It leaned into the brand's usual humorous, entertainment-based approach, and because its recent 'Sunhinged' comedy special — which featured a series of comedians 'roasting' the sun to support SPF use — was such a success, the brand decided to work with a comedian once again.
They picked Rife specifically, according to Kory Marchisotto, E.l.f. Beauty's global chief marketing officer, because of his significant overlap with the brand's target female Gen-Z audience. His TikTok base, she told The Business of Beauty, is 80 percent female, and 75 percent under the age of 34 — 'so right in the sweet spot.'
But the campaign failed to land with some members of that audience. Almost immediately, commenters on the video, and stitches on TikTok, fixated on jokes Rife had made about domestic violence in a 2024 Netflix special. Many demanded to know why a brand that has long devoted itself to uplifting women would partner with someone who makes light of a serious issue impacting some of its core customer base.
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E.l.f. never saw it coming.
'Obviously we're very surprised,' said Marchisotto. 'There is a big gap between our intention and how this missed the mark for some people … We always aim to deliver positivity, and this one didn't. So we find ourselves in a position where, quite honestly, that doesn't feel good for us.'
The brand's public statement, released on Wednesday, told a parallel story: 'You know us, we're always listening and we've heard you. This campaign aimed to humorously spotlight beauty injustice. We understand we missed the mark with people we care about in our e.l.f. community. While e.l.f.ino & schmarnes closes today, we'll continue to make the case against overpriced beauty.'
E.l.f. Beauty's online statement following the backlash to its campaign.
(E.l.f. Beauty)
Online vs. IRL
Rather than focusing on Rife's past content, the team — which releases around 20 rapid-fire campaigns per year — dove into his community engagement, which had 80 percent positive sentiment at the time of the campaign's development, according to Marchisotto.
'We [are] very much known for operating in real time, that's what it means to be in the cultural zeitgeist,' she said. 'So we're not looking in the rear view mirror when we're operating the real-time marketing machine.'
E.l.f. is not the only brand to cause upset among its customers as of late. American Eagle recently sparked outrage among some social media commenters around the wordplay in its latest campaign, 'Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans.' The brand's response to the backlash on Instagram, similarly to E.l.f.'s, claimed that the campaign 'is and was always about her jeans,' rather than being designed to make a broader statement.
Until sales numbers are impacted, though, it's hard to tell whether a poorly executed campaign truly stops customers from shopping a brand. And while 'it's always important to have thoughtful consideration and rigor and discipline behind your talent choices,' said Marchisotto, social media can significantly amplify just how upset onlookers get.
The in-person event the brand hosted at New York's Oculus in conjunction with the campaign on Wednesday, for instance, told a different story than what was happening online. The pop-up, which was designed to look like the inside of a courthouse to mirror the ad, had more than 1,100 visitors queuing up to receive $96,000 worth of E.l.f. products and, in some cases, cash back, in exchange for beauty products they had overspent on, the brand reported.
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'Social media is a magnet for people being outraged,' said Allen Adamson, co-founder of marketing agency Metaforce. 'Whether that outrage stops them from double-clicking on E.l.f. Cosmetics or going to buy American Eagle jeans, there's not always a direct link. People love to stand on their soap boxes on social media … They're still likely wearing American Eagle.'
For E.l.f., while this campaign did not reach customers in the way it hoped it would, it has no plans of straying from its entertaining ethos. 'All of the signals tell us to keep being humorous, to keep pushing the envelope, to keep leaning into entertainment,' said Marchisotto. 'That's what our community loves.'
And while out-of-the-box campaigns may run a natural risk of sparking conversations online — even when brands may not be looking to upset their core demographic — brands like E.l.f. and American Eagle should reconsider the values they share with their core demographic. 'Try to test it against your core users,' Adamson advised. 'You're never going to keep everyone happy … It can ruffle 10 percent of your brand, but if it ruffles 50 percent of your brand core users, then you hit the third rail and you get off.'
E.l.f.'s 'So Many Dicks' campaign is a prime example of standing out within the realm of what a brand values.
In the case of Rife, though, Adamson said, any publicity is good publicity:'If you play it too safe, you're invisible … Most marketing leaders probably would rather be noticed, and apologise or dig out of it later than be invisible,' he said.