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OkCupid Is 'for Every Single Person' in Colorful, Inclusive Ads
Mekanism crafts eye-catching OOH work
Finding love can be difficult, especially on a dating app. Some apps don’t allow you to identify yourself in the way you want, or make you feel as accepted as you want to be. OkCupid is changing that.
OkCupid has always been on the forefront of inclusivity in the dating app realm. It has included 22 gender identities and 20 sexual orientations, but it has now added more ways to be you. There are now more than 60 identities a people can choose from to personalize their account and find their special someone.
To promote this mission of inclusivity, new OOH ads from Mekanism—designed by visual artist Maurizio Cattelan and photographer Pierpaolo Ferrari—celebrate every single soul out there in a fun and loud way. (Cattelan and Ferrari also crafted the visuals for Wieden + Kennedy’s provocative 2018 campaign for OkCupid, themed “DTF,” with which the new work shares a similar visual sensibility.)
See some of the images here:
The campaign is themed “For every single person,” and announces OkCupid’s mission—as people slowly return to in-person dating—in an eye-catching way.
“We want this campaign to show everyone—from feminists to introverts to non-binary to pansexuals to vaxxers—that OkCupid is a place where they can feel welcomed,” global chief marketing officer Melissa Hobley tells The Drum. “We have always been an exclusively inclusive dating app, and that will never change.”
Not all the ads were approved to run, but Mekanism was undeterred.
“When you’re truly inclusive, you’re bound to offend someone,” says creative director Katrina Mustakas. “Several of our more provocative executions were not approved in many of our placements across New York, L.A. and Chicago. We had to scramble to replace them in the ninth hour, but that won’t stop us from welcoming ‘Every Single Person’ to OkCupid.”
Last we heard from OkCupid was right before the 2020 election, with a campaign from Mischief all about “VILFs” (because voting is sexy).
Maria Tsangarakis is interning with Muse. She comes to us from the Klein College of Media and Communication at Temple University. She is a double major in advertising and communications and social influence with a minor in psychology. During her free time, she enjoys reading, writing, hiking and spending time with her family and friends.
