Founded in 2004, online dating site OkCupid long refrained from advertising, but it changed its tune last year, after mobile upstarts like Tinder were finally too big to ignore. Under its first chief marketing officer, Melissa Hobley, OkCupid and Wieden & Kennedy New York created cheeky, brightly colored “DTF” ads that replaced the “F” word in the colorful expression with others representing couples’ shared interests. The copy ranges from “DTFire Up the Kiln” to “DTFree Speech,” currently up on billboards in Washington, D.C., and part of the campaign’s second leg. The ads, some of which have raised hacklesits “DTFilter Out the Far Right” was banned in some markets, and depictions of same-sex couples earned the ire of anti-LGBTQ groupshave boosted social mentions of the brand by 50 percent, according to the company. Hobley, who joined OkCupid in 2017, recently spoke with Ad Age about the campaign and its repercussions. Our conversation has been edited and condensed.
How much was the origin of “DTF” influenced by current events?
They absolutely informed what we were doing. We really started leaning in to politics. If you’re passionately progressive and you stumped for Bernie or Hillary, that’s an essential part of your life. And if you work on environmental causes, you probably want to know before you match if somebody even believes climate change is a thing or not.
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