The campaign featuring Matt Rife has been branded “rage bait”, with people calling Elf Cosmetics “tone deaf” for using the comedian.
Beauty brand Elf Cosmetics has come under fire for its ad campaign starring comedian Matt Rife, who has previously made jokes about domestic violence.
Elf collaborated with drag queen Heidi N Closet and Rife for its ‘E.l.f.ino & Schmarnes’ campaign, which launched on Monday (11 August). The ad stars the duo as attorneys defending clients against overpriced beauty products.
The brand soon received backlash for featuring Rife, who made a domestic violence joke in his 2023 Netflix special. He also made jokes about the transgender community.
In response to the backlash, Elf Cosmetics released a statement today (14 August) stating the campaign aimed to “humorously spotlight beauty injustice”.
Beauty brand Elf Cosmetics has come under fire for its ad campaign starring comedian Matt Rife, who has previously made jokes about domestic violence.
Elf collaborated with drag queen Heidi N Closet and Rife for its ‘E.l.f.ino & Schmarnes’ campaign, which launched on Monday (11 August). The ad stars the duo as attorneys defending clients against overpriced beauty products.
The brand soon received backlash for featuring Rife, who made a domestic violence joke in his 2023 Netflix special. He also made jokes about the transgender community.
In response to the backlash, Elf Cosmetics released a statement today (14 August) stating the campaign aimed to “humorously spotlight beauty injustice”.
The brand admitted it “missed the mark with people we care about”, but stopped short of a full apology. At the time of publication, the ad was also still available on its Instagram feed.
The statement led to comments from users calling the brand “tone deaf”, with another saying, “This isn’t an apology. The ad is still up, and you didn’t actually address the issue at all. Do better.”
Beauty influencers, including Alice in the Rabbit Hole, have also said they’re boycotting the brand, calling the campaign “calculated” and “rage bait”, while people have shared videos throwing away their Elf products on TikTok.
Elf is known for its campaigns championing gender inequality. The brand is one of two publicly listed US companies out of 4,000 to have a board of directors made up of 78% women and 44% diverse representation.
Campaigns to challenge gender dynamics include ‘So Many Dicks’, part of Elf’s broader ‘Change the Board Game’ initiative to add more women and diverse talent to company boards. It shows there are more Richards, Ricks and Dicks on corporate boards than underrepresented groups.
Speaking to Marketing Week in March, Elf Beauty’s chief brand officer Laurie Lam praised Elf’s focus on equality.
“One of the things I’m actually most proud of when it comes to the marketing team is how it has mirrored the diverse communities that we serve,” she said.
Featuring Rife is seemingly a departure from its brand ethos. However, Elf Cosmetics’ CMO Kory Marchisotto told The Business of Beauty that it chose Rife because of his “significant overlap” with the brand’s target female Gen Z audience.
In 2023, Rife, who already had a large social media following, made a joke in the opening moments of his ‘Natural Selection’ special about a hostess with a black eye.
“My boy, who I was with, was like, ‘Yeah, I feel bad for her, man, I feel like they should put her in the kitchen or something where nobody has to see her face.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, but I feel like if she could cook, she wouldn’t have that black eye,’” Rife joked.
Rife responded to the criticism at the time with an Instagram Story aimed at those offended by the joke. “Tap to solve your issue”, read a URL link, which directed his followers to a website selling helmets for people with disabilities.
Elf is not the only brand to receive backlash for an ad featuring a celebrity lately. American Eagle recently sparked outrage around the wordplay in its latest campaign, ‘Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans’.
The brand’s response to the backlash on Instagram claimed that the campaign “is and was always about her jeans”, rather than a direct apology.
