Tennis legend Serena Williams starred in the Super Bowl LIII commercial for Bumble, the dating app where only women can make the first contact.
The ad is part of the app’s new “The Ball Is In Her Court” campaign and featured references to Bumble’s other verticals. The app also has Bumble Bizz, to help people find new professional contacts; and Bumble BFF, to find new friends.
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“I think we’re taught as women sometimes that it’s OK to sit back and it’s OK to let someone come to you and it’s OK, you’ll get your opportunity because people will open the door and people will come to you,” Williams said in an interview with CBS News before the game. “But why not just grab it and take it and be the first and ask for it or go for our first move.”
Williams, who is married to Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, continued, “We have to let them know we’re just as good — we work just as hard. I know I’ve been working since I was 3 years old picking up tennis rackets so I deserve the same treatment as everyone else.”
Bumble was founded by Whitney Wolfe Herd, 29, who co-founded Tinder. Four years after launching the app, it has grown to 46 million users worldwide.
“Everyone was catering to what the man might want and you had a bunch of men sitting around saying, ‘Well, what do women want?’ Well, put one in charge and maybe you’ll find out,” Herd told CBS News.
Unlike other dating apps, only female users can reach out to male matches first in heterosexual relationships. In same-sex relationships, either user can make the first contact. Bumble also urges users to think fast, since the first contact expires in 24 hours, unless users respond or pay $9.99 a month for extra features.
Bumble and Williams teamed up to create an ad that targets women, and was created and directed by an all-female team.
“We are so, so proud to be in this together,” Herd told ABC News. “We are going into the Super Bowl, a moment that really, really emphasizes celebrating men and we are here to say that we are here as well.”
Alex Williamson, Bumble’s chief brand officer, told ABC News the goal of the ad was to bring a message of empowerment for women “in everything that they’re doing and how they’re going after their lives.”
“For us, it’s catering to a different demographic watching the Super Bowl,” Williamson added. “There are so many women who watch the Super Bowl. We wanted that opportunity to really be in the living rooms of people across the nation and share our mission and share our story but to do it in the Bumble way, which is to go against what is expected of us to do.”
On the other hand, Williamson said it was also important to share the message with the men watching the game.
“How do you really approach empowering women without inviting men into that conversation as well?” she noted. “We want this to be a moment that lifts confidence in women and really promotes equality.”
