Bumble mocked celibacy on billboards — and pulled the campaign in three weeks

In April 2024 Bumble launched a redesign meant to revive lagging user interest, built around a new 'Opening Moves' feature. The campaign's billboards, concentrated around Los Angeles, ran lines like 'You know full well a vow of celibacy is not the answer' and 'Thou shalt not give up on dating and become a nun,' paired with a Twitter video ad built around a Bumble-themed nunnery.

The joke landed as an attack rather than encouragement. Commenters across social media said the copy invalidated women's sexual autonomy at a moment of heightened anxiety over reproductive rights, dismissed the asexual community's identity as a punchline, and ignored that celibacy is sometimes chosen after trauma or abuse rather than out of despair at dating.

On 13 May 2024, three weeks after launch, Bumble removed the ads from its global marketing campaign and posted an apology on Instagram: 'We made a mistake... instead of bringing joy and humor, we unintentionally did the opposite.' The company said it would donate to the National Domestic Violence Hotline and other groups supporting women, marginalised communities and abuse survivors, and offered the remaining time on its billboard bookings to those organisations.