When 30 Days Isn't Enough: How Short Data Windows Led to e.l.f.'s Matt Rife Misstep

In August 2025, a highly controversial ad was released by e.l.f. Cosmetics. A brand known for more affordable products. However, the ad featured Matt Rife. Many users of the product wanted to understand why he was chosen for the ad. Let’s dig into e.l.f. and Matt Rife's audience and see why looking at only a few months of data about a person can get you in trouble.  

Who is Matt Rife?

He is a comedian who started out creating TikTok content and then performing stand-up. Some of his stand-up shows have been met with controversy, such as his Netflix special, Natural Selection, in November 2023. Using Infegy Starscape, we reviewed his audience. The people who speak of Matt Rife positively identify themselves most commonly in Figure 1. They are also a 61% male audience. He has gotten himself into trouble multiple times with jokes about domestic violence, gender identity, and disabled people. 

Figure 1: Positive Matt Rife Conversation Most Used Bio Terms (January 2022-September 2025); Infegy Social Dataset.

Figure 2: Matt Rife Conversations (January 2022-September 2025); Infegy Social Dataset.

His positivity with women is 56% and his negativity is 27%. These may not seem terrible, but if we look at the topics, we find terms like “domestic violence” and “derogatory”. These are not terms that brands traditionally like to associate with female products.

Cosmetics Expanding Male Markets

E.l.f. Cosmetics has an audience of 81% women and 18% men. Conversations on social media primarily discuss products featured in how-to videos and #grwm content, including posts from men. However, makeup brands have been branching into supporting influencers who are men, starting with James Charles, who was named as the first male Cover Girl Ambassador. It makes sense to try to continue attempts to grow the audience. Basketball player Jalen Green and Machine Gun Kelly have also worked in the nail category.

With these parts of Matt Rife’s traditional audience noted, it begs the question. Why was he chosen for a makeup brand?

A Problem with Short Lookback Windows

Now, let's assume they were only looking at 30 days of data, which is the most common quick search limit among our competitors; the view of Matt Rife is rosy.

Figure 3: Gender breakdown for Matt Rife Posts (June 16, 2025-July 15, 2025); Infegy Social Dataset.

Women are much more positive about Matt Rife! 69% positive and only 20% negative. This is a big difference in overall feelings with a larger lookback.

Additionally, the negative terms are now less scary for brand managers like “obsessive”, “pretty gross”, and “attention starved”. 

Figure 4: Female topics for Matt Rife Posts (June 16, 2025-July 15, 2025); Infegy Social Dataset.

Making this decision makes a lot more sense when considering that their researchers may not have been looking at the whole picture.

Overall Results

Honestly, not much. This ad didn’t move the needle. It might have actually hurt them.

Figure 5: Gender breakdown for e.l.f. Cosmetics (July 10, 2025 - Aug 9, 2025); Infegy Social Dataset.

Figure 6: Gender breakdown for e.l.f. Cosmetics (July 10, 2025 - Aug 9, 2025); Infegy Social Dataset.

The audience has expanded, but both genders now have a lower positivity than before.

Why You Need More Data

If you weren’t looking at the whole picture of Matt Rife conversations, you may have thought he was a bit edgy but not deeply offensive to your target audience. With a full picture with tools like Infegy Starscape, you can know that Matt Rife is not the greatest choice for a makeup brand,  and perhaps save yourself a decrease in overall brand perception, as our data suggests.

Save yourself the hassle and book a demo with Infegy today.