Bumble last month apologized for ads making light of women so frustrated with online dating that they would consider celibacy. And Hinge’s yearslong “Designed to Be Deleted” campaign has started to fall flat for longtime users still looking for love on their phones.
As dating apps court precisely new and younger audiences, some of their marketing efforts are turning off daters instead.
Nearly half of all online daters and more than half of female daters say their experiences have been negative, according to Pew, and a growing tide of users are sharing their dissatisfaction in popular Facebook forums and on TikTok respectively.