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For one of the shortest months of the year, February is one of the busiest: the Super Bowl, the Grammy Awards, NBA All-Star Weekend, Valentine’s Day and, of course, Black History Month, jockeying for the public’s time and attention.
Brands and the media are often so busy courting so many different factions at once that it’s easy for others to go unnoticed and neglected—and ultimately forgotten.
It is a scenario that is all too familiar for women of color year-round—especially when it comes to Black women.
With that in mind, Bumble partnered with ethnographic marketing, communications and content company Worthi for #LoveLetterToBlackWomen, a heartwarming social campaign featuring notable fans of famous Black women, along with members of the Bumble’s real-life user community.
Often left out of traditional love stories and romance-themed entertainment—where they are typically relegated to the role of supportive side characters or comic relief—Black women are often denied the opportunity to have “main character energy” in their own stories. So, the women-first dating and social networking app took to creating content to change that narrative.
The campaign was released in February, but the brand is looking to have an impact far beyond any singular month as with previous initiatives that support marginalized users.
“When Bumble was founded in 2014, it was with equality in mind,” Christina Hardy, director of talent and influencers at Bumble, told Adweek. “When our team connected with Worthi last year, we created a plan to continue our commitment of celebrating the Black community by elevating Black women and hopefully generating a wave of positive conversation to capture the love that we have for these women by tapping into not only influencers and creators, but via real Bumble Success Stories—those who met their partners on the app.”
The campaign kicked off with a video written, produced and directed by musician and creative director Jesse Boykins III and New Growth Creative Activities featuring actor Keith Powers reciting a poem paying homage to Black women.
“It’s incredible watching you do the things you do while the world takes so much inspiration from you,” Powers emotes into the camera. “Please never forget how uniquely beautiful you are.”
In addition to content exclusively from Black creators, other videos shared through the social campaign feature Cameron Hamilton, whose onscreen romance with now-wife Lauren Speed Hamilton made the fan-favorite couple breakout stars of Netflix’s Love Is Blind franchise, and Edwin Torres, whose partner, Dominique Jackson, made history as part of the largest transgender ensemble cast in the groundbreaking and critically acclaimed FX series Pose.
“Once we landed on the concept, we sought to identify a wide range of people of influence who publicly, deeply and fully were loving on the Black women in their lives,” said Myles Worthington, Worthi’s founder and CEO. “Black women have historically been chastised, dehumanized and fetishized in the media, and we wanted to ensure we were showcasing not just men or women from our own community, but a range of people who had a sincere adoration, respect and love for the magnificence that is Black women.”
A history of loving marginalized communities
Indeed, the Bumble marketing team has been busy bees when it comes to distinguishing the company among the increasingly crowded field as “a dating and social networking app founded on the values of healthy and equitable relationships through kind connections.”
Last year, the brand tapped multi-hyphenate artist Teyana Taylor to host Luv2SeeIt, a YouTube series on the Bumble channel about Black love with guests such as Diddy, Niecy and Dia Nash, and Lori Harvey—as well as Taylor’s NBA star and Dancing With the Stars disco ball trophy-winning husband, Iman Shumpert—discussing such diverse topics as dating comfort zones, polyamory, sex and intimacy, and more with Black Bumble daters joining in to share their perspectives.
The popular series—along with their U.K. podcast My Love Is… and previous and continuing monetary support of BIPOC and LGBTQ+ organizations, as well as outreach though peer events like Bumble IRL, a campaign bolstering the app’s safety features and other initiatives—have singled out Bumble as a keeper for underrepresented communities.
Hardy told Adweek that throughout the month of February, Bumble also partnered with the James Beard Foundation to host mix-and-mingle events at Black women-owned and led restaurants held in New York, Miami, Washington D.C., Dallas, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
“We are also contributing a grant to support Black Women’s Health Imperative’s Fair Work Initiative,” Hardy added. “The globally facing initiative is a quantifiable solution and sustainable investment that progressive organizations can implement in order to reap the benefits of a fair workplace for all, led by Black women.”
