The internet has mastered the art of finding and obsessing over “dupe” products. But while most brands don’t want to be duped, e.l.f. Beauty flipped the script and invited it. “Dupe That!” is a campaign by e.l.f. that challenged the world to start duping something way more important: our values.

Because let’s be real—e.l.f. has been setting the standard for years. e.l.f. democratizes access to beauty with premium products for a fraction of the competitor costs. e.l.f. changed the board game, with a board of directors that is 78% women and 44% diverse. e.l.f. leads with kind hearts, with at least 2% of their profits going to drive positive change in the world. e.l.f. granted $180 million in equity to their employees by making them shareholders. 

Instead of gatekeeping the principles that made e.l.f. popular, they put out a bold call-to-action: copy us, please! The way we see it, the more companies that dupe e.l.f.'s values, the better for business and for our world. 

The campaign shouted those values from TikTok to The New York Times! Our videos and reels got ~6.7 million views and over ~127k engagements, with our loyal community jumping in to reinforce that this is why they support us. We took out spreads in The New York Times, and took over the Oculus to make sure our values reach beyond the social-sphere. We also hosted the world's first unicorn parade on socials to show that everything is possible when unicorn brands band together.

By hijacking the dupe discourse and turning it into a rallying cry, “Dupe That!” e.l.f. showed that being worth imitating is the biggest flex of all.