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OkCupid’s CMO Talks DTF Campaign

OkCupid’s Chief Marketing Officer has been talking to Adweek about the company’s controversial “DTF” adverts.

“DTF” is a derogatory term, typically used to reference a young woman who is “Down to F***”.  

However, OkCupid’s campaign has been inviting people to rebrand it into something they are looking for in a relationship. Examples include “Down to Feel Fabulous” and “Down to Fight About the President”.

Melissa Hobley, OkCupid’s first CMO, told Adweek: “The insight driving this campaign was that this phrase, DTF, is one that is typically used as a label on young women, one that they have no say or no voice in.

“Certainly this campaign was birthed in the era of ‘Me Too’ and in a year that’s really important for women.”

The adverts, which were designed to run on public transport and billboards, have been rejected by a number of authorities in major American cities, such as Washington DC, New York and Chicago.

It’s believed that the eye catching images have been rejected as some of them reference sex, drugs and politics.

OkCupid’s advertising team admitted that they understood why some adverts had been dismissed. However, they were surprised that completely innocent versions were also rejected, for example “Down to Farmer’s Market”.

Hobley explained to Adweek: “We certainly knew we would not be able to run every execution in every market. What surprised us was that certain huge vendors, outlets and agencies rejected the campaign completely.”

One of the main goals for the campaign was to get people thinking and talking about the representation of women in the media as well as OkCupid in general. Research conducted by the brand has suggested that its number of social media mentions has risen by 50% since the campaign has been running.

Hobley said:  “We ran this campaign in a number of cities in Q1 of 2018, and the response was phenomenal. We saw the needle move, we saw people talking about it—young women especially.”

Read more here.

 

Dominic Whitlock

Dominic is the Editor for Global Dating Insights. Originally from Devon, England he achieved a BA in English Language & Linguistics from The University of Reading. He enjoys a variety of sports and has a further passion for film and music.

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