Lately, Bumble has been making some big changes. After a new CEO, Lidiane Jones, took over in January, the company recruited Barry Keoghan to thirst-trap potential swipers into submission and finally ditched its founding premise of making women message men first. But the app’s rebrand appears to have hit a snag: An anti-celibacy ad campaign has ticked off a lot of potential customers.
Two weeks ago, Bumble rolled out a commercial that showed a woman attempting to “swear off dating” and become a nun, only to abandon her convent after drooling over a sexy shirtless gardener and receiving an illicit phone loaded with the Bumble app. “We’ve changed so you don’t have to,” an overlay text read, presumably referring to the slate of new features the app is rolling out alongside its “opening move” pivot. “Introducing the new Bumble.”
Shortly after the commercial aired, a handful of global billboards popped up with taglines such as “You know full well a vow of celibacy is not the answer” and “Thou shalt not give up on dating and become a nun.”
@yourfinestpardon How do they not get it???? #bumble #manorbear #4b #popculturenews #popculture
♬ original sound - yourfinestpardon
@laurensalaun Fun fact: Years ago, I dated a literal sociopath… guess how I met him? 🥴 #bumble #dating #datingtips #datingadvice #4b #4bmovement #celibacy #womensempowerment #feminineenergy #divinefeminine #greenscreen
♬ original sound - Lauren Salaun
The campaign seems to be responding to the increasing conversation around voluntary celibacy — a popular TikTok hashtag — among young women, many of whom say they find dating and hookup culture so toxic, degrading, or dangerous that they’ve opted out altogether. Dating apps, with their gamified format, questionable background-checking practices, and rampant harassment, have been criticized as part of the problem — and, though Bumble originally claimed to set itself aside by empowering women to make the first move, it’s never been clear how our lived experiences on the app are all that different from, say, Tinder or Hinge. The new billboards, which dismiss a decision that many women say made them feel safer and more powerful, are not doing the supposedly feminist dating app any favors.
@lifecoachshawn Bumble says when should give up their vow of celibacy. Here’s what I think about their suggestion. #datingapp #datingtips #datingadvice #bumble @Shawnda
♬ original sound - Shawnda
@ayeyiathome To clarify, I’m not one for swearing off men entirely. Good ones do exist. But until Prince Charming himself comes and finds me, I ain’t looking cause this certainly is not it. #bumble #bumblebillboard
♬ original sound - Ayeyi at Home
In response, TikTokers laid into Bumble for encouraging women to solve their dating problems by just having sex, all while brushing the very valid reasons they choose to abstain under the rug. A lot of them said the billboards were a great reminder of why they chose celibacy in the first place — including Julia Fox, who commented on one post, “2.5 years of celibacy and never been better tbh.”
On Monday, Bumble swiftly reversed course. The app appears to have taken down the nunnery commercial and indicated in a statement sent to the Cut that it plans to remove the billboards as well. A spokeswoman wrote, “We have heard the concerns shared about the ad’s language and understand that rather than highlighting a current sentiment toward dating, it may have had a negative impact on some of our community.”
The app also posted a statement on Instagram acknowledging the company had “made a mistake” and shared some of the feedback it had received, including that for some people, “celibacy is the only answer when reproductive rights are continuously restricted” and that “for many, celibacy may be brought on by harm or trauma.” The post added that Bumble plans to donate to the National Domestic Violence Hotline and “other organizations” and will also hand over the billboard space to those groups to display “an ad of their choice for the duration of our reserved billboard time.”
This post has been updated.
