Tinder Doesn't Appreciate Billboards Linking It to STDs

Dating app wants AIDS Healthcare Foundation billboards taken down
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 29, 2015 10:07 AM CDT
Tinder Doesn't Appreciate Billboards Linking It to STDs
Graphic of the signs that are up around LA.   (AIDS Healthcare Foundation)

Information on how to get free testing for diseases—great, right? Unless, perhaps, you're a dating app that's being linked to STDs. Tinder and Grindr aren't pleased with new AIDS Healthcare Foundation signage that's gone up around Los Angeles, showing not only where people can get free checkups, but also silhouetted faces labeled "Tinder," "Chlamydia," "Grindr," and "Gonorrhea," the Los Angeles Times reports. Per the AP, the campaign includes a dozen billboards and 45 bus bench signs, with one sign CBS Los Angeles notes being "strategically placed" just a few blocks from Tinder's HQ. Grindr has nixed the AHF's paid ads, and Tinder sent a cease-and-desist letter, noting the "wholly unsubstantiated accusations are made to irreparably damage Tinder's reputation in an attempt to encourage others to take an HIV test by your organization," per the Times.

But the AHF isn't backing down, citing various studies and articles that link casual dating with STDs. "It's logical: If you can be hooked up with someone in an urban area within minutes, of course you're going to have more STDs," the foundation's president tells the AP. A group director doubles down, adding, per a press release, "Nine out of 10 alcohol companies include 'Please Drink Responsibly' warnings on their products. Meanwhile, hook up application developers take a 'Wild West/Anything Goes' attitude to possible consequences of their apps." The AHF says it won't be taking the signs down and even plans on putting them up in other cities, including New York and Miami. One LA man who was diagnosed with AIDS years ago thinks the billboards are fine. "I think the AIDS Healthcare Foundation has to do what they have to do to keep all young people safe that are doing these new apps now," he tells CBS. (More Tinder stories.)

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