Bumble fumble : The “just f—K Him” Creative
Destroying your brand in one campaign, the role of in-house creative, & the relevance of tiktok
A developing story: Saturday evening, I posted on TikTok about a shocking Bumble campaign miss, a billboard that reads “You know full well celibacy is not the answer.” The campaign itself has led to mass negative sentiment and calls to boycott, 1-star review, and delete the app. My TikTok, is a microcosm of popular sentiment on the ad, less than two days the video has more than 375,000 views, more than 1200 comments, more than 24,500 likes, more than 1284 saves and more than 1300 shares. A related video confirming the Billboard is real has received more than 58,000 views in the last day. Clearly Bumble hit a nerve. And so did I.
CONTENTS
The Bumble Rebrand
The Campaign & Why It’s So Problematic
Is it Real - and the Importance of This Question?
The Relevance of Agencies In-House Creative
Popular Response and TikTok
Part 1 THE Bumble Rebrand
When we look at the origin story of Bumble, the dating app differentiated itself in two key ways. First of all, this idea that women had to make the first move—unique to Bumble— was premised in women's empowerment. Bumble really leaned into that. A second part of Bumble was that you could pick if you wanted to meet a romantic partner, or if you wanted to meet a friend or a networking contact.
Both of these concepts—centering women’s needs and the role of friendship—though absent from the campaign, which we’ll get to momentarily; are still part of their core brand DNA. When I went to the Bumble homepage to research this TikTok, I saw a story of a woman who met her husband and Maid of honor there; underscoring the romantic partners or friends, so that’s still there. And to stay “women-centered,” the messaging around women no longer “making the first move” is to “remove the burden.”
A rebrand was not altogether a bad idea. In fact, I—and many others—had high hopes for whatever brand messaging Bumble was going to come back with, because their intermediary campaign for the new Bumble was really good.
In a bold move, they stripped away all of the content that was on their Instagram. and put up memes of historic women that read EXHAUSTED.
Finally, we thought, a dating app that gets that the experience on dating apps is terrible. Let’s see what they do next.
When I say no one could’ve expected what came next, it’s not a compliment, it’s ominous. They didn't stick with the irreverent historic memes which were kind of interesting and a pattern interrupt.
Read, or Watch on TikTok
PART 2: The Campaign & Why It’s So Problematic
In my now viral TikTok, I referred to this particular billboard as a “Just F—K him” campaign, in part to make a Nike-tagline related joke, but mostly because it’s the sentiment.
The construction of this sentence is particularly distressing, so let’s break it down. Let’s begin with the “you know full well.” Unsurprisingly—that is, I imagine, for everyone outside the Bumble in-house creative team- it stirred up a similar controversy to the “You Know You Want It” in Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines. It’s a trope that’s been used to forced women into uncomfortable situations including SA for generations: “You KNOW [you actually want this].” You KNOW a vow of celibacy is not the answer. It feels like: Ladies, you think you don’t want to have sex, but really, you KNOW you do.
Numerous commenters on my post also pointed out that You Know Full Well is AAVE (African American Vernacular English), and paired with a Black model with rose-colored glasses is particularly offensive. (Not to mention the “hot for gardener” TikTok on Bumble’s TikTok which features the Black actors as laborers at the nunnery, as caricatures, and the only man in the ad as a sex object). Another miss for the brand that may’ve thought casting Black and Brown talent would be seen as inclusive, but the execution is being read as stereotyping and targeting communities of color in painful ways.
The next part of the statement—”a vow of celibacy is not the answer” is a miss for so many reasons. Yes, there are conversations of celibacy on TikTok and in pop culture at this moment. (There’s a viral 4b movement out of Korea which I wasn’t even aware until hundreds of comments flooded my post.) The idea is that women are tired of how messy and hard dating apps, and dating in 2024, feels. Bumble landed on that. But their response was disastrous.
The set-up of the ad “You know full well celibacy is not the answer” followed by “Introducing the new Bumble” feels like a classic problem-solution. Problem? Sad dating life. Solution: Here’s Bumble. But this issue is Bumble literally minimizes the problem women face and blames them. Find the answer by giving up celibacy on new Bumble. Ladies, go and Bumble and F—k someone! Problem solved!
It couldn’t feel more counterintuitive to the origin story of Bumble, because it doesn't feel sex positive or empowering to women. It feels like we’re Dodos who need to be told to meet a guy and have sex with him to be happy and valuable.
Further, creative cannot exist outside of current events. Numerous women commented how upsetting this ad is in light of the threat to reproductive freedoms in the U.S. Bodily autonomy? Who needs it? Bumble knows the answer: giving up your vow of celibacy.
In my comments, I saw hundreds of women share they’d be deleting the app based on the creative—and mine was of multiple viral videos that saw the same response.
Part 3: Is it Real - and the Importance of This Question?
One other comment stood out to me on my video: Was this billboard even real?
“It’s a sign of stunningly bad creative and the threat of AI if the number one defense of your campaign is a disbelief that it’s even real.”
Another comment came through my post: Maybe the post wasn’t even real. An AI scandal? A hit campaign by competitors? After all, on Instagram, the same model is on a billboard that reads: “Frankly, no one knows how to respond to [3 fire emojis].”
Of course, it was real (as I confirmed in this follow up video). It was simply different messaging across different channels. The lambasted billboard was spotted by eyewitnesses, and reported on in the news.
According to Fortune: “Bumble also refreshed its brand as seen on its wiped Instagram. A new campaign developed by its in-house creative team has more edgy taglines like ‘You can stop putting your retainer in at 7pm on a Friday,’ and ‘you know full well a vow of celibacy is not the answer. ’”
But it’s an incredibly interesting part of the story that there’s a whole section of TikTok devoted to uncovering if the ad is real. That’s how you know it’s bad.
Part 4: The Relevance of Agencies In-House Creative
A notable moment in the Fortune quote above “developed by in-house creative.” There was a now-famous LinkedIn post a few weeks back arguing against the agency model. Arguing that companies know their brand and just want the creative. Sure, as an agency owner I have a horse in this race, but if we needed a recent example of a brand not seeing the forest for the trees and desperately needed outside strategist; it’s this campaign.
Imagine if Bumble had collaborated with an agency—a true collaboration. In-house creative knows they want to be spicy and edgy and call out issues in modern dating. The right agency refines and uplifts the idea with creative that actually does this rather than alienating the audience and coming off in opposition to every espoused brand value. The money spent on an agency would certainly be less than the crisis firm that has to save “new Bumble” from accusations ranging from being anti-woman and anti-feminist to racism.
Part 5: POPULAR RESPONSE & TikTok
I’d be remiss not to make this point. Since the potential ban was passed, the #1 question I get leading a marketing firm known for viral strategy is if it’s even worth it. I’ve gotten nearly 500,000 views in a video that cost me $0 to make. My post has been reshared by editors and I’ve been LinkedIn by senior leaders at brands.
Stay on TikTok. Better yet, get on or stay on with my support. Join our email list here or email me at info@saramccord.com to set up a call.
