David Brown

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It's May, 2024.

In the hours before dawn, installation crews fan out across Los Angeles and London, hanging posters for the online dating app Bumble.

Above highways in Los Angeles, workers and cherry pickers rise toward massive 14-by-48-foot billboard frames.

In London, crews head underground, carrying rolled-up posters into subway stations.

By rush hour, these crews have hung the ads along major commuting routes.

They're part of a sweeping rebrand by Bumble, which is trying to redefine how people think about online dating.

And these ads are aimed squarely at people who feel burned out by it.

One ad reads, you know full well a vow of celibacy is not the answer.

Another declares, thou shalt not give up on dating and become a nun.

When Bumble debuted in 2014, it made a bold promise.

Unlike other dating apps, women would make the first move.

It was framed as the feminist answer to hookup culture.

And the message resonated.

In 2021, Bumble's IPO exploded onto Wall Street.

The stock surged on its first day of trading, pushing the company's valuation close to $14 billion.

Its founder, Whitney Wolf Hurd, became the youngest self-made female billionaire at just 31.

But that high didn't last.

Revenue growth slowed, and the stock cratered, down more than 80% from its peak.