Love Island Stars Call Out Preconceptions Black Women Face When Dating in Poignant Bumble Campaign

Last week, women-first dating app Bumble, launched its latest campaign amplifying the experiences of Black British women and calling out unhelpful preconceptions they may face in dating while teasing a way forward. 

The campaign produced by Out Since Tuesday builds on Bumble’s 'My Love is Black Love' platform which was born from the insight that more than half of Black people in the UK (53%) do not see themselves represented in images of love in mainstream online spaces. The lack of representation is felt even more strongly amongst Black women (67%).

"For Black History Month we were tasked with creating an advertisement campaign to spotlight real issues that black women face whilst online dating," said the team at Out Since Tuesday. "With 'cuffing season' in full swing and singles looking for someone to spend the colder months with, Bumble took the opportunity to partner with Out Since Tuesday and Butterfly 3ffect, a creative agency on a mission to empower diverse creatives and brave brands for the 2023 iteration of their 'My Love is Black Love' campaign; a cheeky, upbeat, and poignant campaign focussing on real women and their real-life dating experiences."

The lack of Black love representation in mainstream online spaces meant that more than 1 in 3 Black British millennials (34%) feel stereotyped by others. To spotlight these often challenging experiences, Bumble enlisted the help of creators such as Love Island stars, Amber Gill and Whitney Adebayo, Nella Rose, and others like Shantania Beckford, and Tolly T (The Receipts Podcast) to help bring the old adage “don’t judge a book by its cover” into the 21st century with this new flavourful campaign.

The content from real women spoke firsthand about unwelcome preconceptions that they have experienced in their own dating lives such as “they might expect that I’m bougie, materialistic, and uptight” or “that I’m super extroverted when I’m quite shy”. Still, others fielded surprise at “how well spoken they were”, that they were a classically trained violinist, spoke Spanish as a second language, or that they were into football. 

Naomi Walkland, Bumble’s VP marketing said: “Our My Love is Black Love platform was born of the insight that Black people in the UK did not see themselves represented in images of love in mainstream online spaces. While we’ve seen some positive shifts in representation, Black women continue to face stereotypes and preconceptions when dating, everything from what kinds of dates they “expect”, to the food they want to eat, to the volumes of their voices. Bumble has, and will continue, to use our platform to better represent the breadth of Black love from broadening representation, to challenging fetishisation and preconceptions, and importantly creating space to celebrate the joy of love stories from the community.”

“Representation matters, always. Being seen, heard, and valued are the cornerstone of any friendship or romance that lasts, and are key to living a healthy, happy life. The more we listen to diverse voices the more we understand how important it is to have these important conversations and show up authentically. We focused on featuring real women, sharing real stories in a real way. It was great to work with a brand that believed in the vision and were committed to making an impact,” said Elfried Samba, Butterfly 3ffect’s co-founder and CEO.