eHarmony Receives Applause and Backlash for More Inclusive Ad Campaign

Online dating company eHarmony launched an ad campaign highlighting LGBTQ dating on its app, and has received backlash from some on the conservative right, according to a report by NBC News.

The company has roots in the Christian community and has been viewed as unwelcoming to the LGBTQ community. To move past this perception, executives invested in a rebranding campaign that highlights inclusivity. The company launched its first inclusive ad featuring a lesbian couple this winter.

The ad entitled “I Scream” is part of the “Real Love” campaign, and shows the couple in their kitchen making dinner, then deciding it’s not very good and opting for ice cream on the couch. “Being honest with each other,” the voiceover says. “Saying yes to great ideas. eHarmony — here for real love.”

While the ad was applauded by the LGBTQ community as a step forward for the company, the right-wing organization One Million Moms started a petition to remove the ad, claiming it “brainwashes children and adults” because homosexuality is “forbidden by Scripture.” Their petition has received more than 15,300 signatures. 

Neil Clark Warren, who founded the company back in 2000, publicly avoided the subject of LGBTQ dating in order to grow his customer base and avoid controversy. But according to NBC in 2005, before the legalization of gay marriage, he told USA Today: “We don’t really want to participate in something that’s illegal.”

He went on to tell Christian media outlets like Focus on the Family that, “I take a real strong stand against same-sex marriage anywhere that I can comment on it.”

In 2008, due to increased pressure from a growing customer base calling for a more inclusive platform, Warren launched a subsite to eHarmony called Compatible Partners, which was specifically for LGBTQ relationships. However, there was no link from the main eHarmony site for those who might be interested. Also, those customers interested in dating both men and women had to purchase two subscriptions. When the company lost a discrimination lawsuit, it was forced to make the sites reciprocal.

eHarmony only began offering same-sex matches on its site in 2019, and has grown more than 100 percent year over year since, according to NBC (with more than 2 million messages a week in 2021). Since Warren left the company in 2016, there’s been a concerted effort to make it a more inclusive platform. 

“While we’re proud of the changes we’ve made to our platform, we recognize that we have work left to do, and are committed to finding ways to be more inclusive to people of all gender identities and sexual orientations across all facets of what we do,” Chief Operating Office Gareth Mandel said in a statement.