Get all your news in one place.
100's of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Fortune
Fortune
Emma Hinchliffe, Joseph Abrams

Bumble's 'celibacy' ad and how its rebrand went wrong

Bumble app displayed on a mobile phone screen (Credit: Courtesy: Bumble)

Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Columbia University faculty pass a no-confidence vote against president Minouche Shafik, U.S. moms are leading a surge in part-time workers, and this is how Bumble's rebrand veered off course. Have a restorative weekend.

- Bumble's stumble. Bumble's announcement late last month of a product relaunch and rebrand was meant to herald a new era for the decade-old dating app founded by Whitney Wolfe Herd. Bumble was long known as the platform where women "make the first move," due to an in-app requirement that women send the initial message to men in heterosexual pairings. But Bumble changed that feature to allow women to pre-set an opening question rather than send a message every time. The product tweaks seemed to go over well, but the accompanying ad campaign has been another story.

A refresh was needed. Consumers are fatigued after years of swiping, and making the first move—once empowering—had became "a burden to a subset of our customers," new Bumble Inc. CEO Lidiane Jones told me.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100's of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.