Hero Condoms takes to Tinder to match users with STIs
Australian Tinder users have been caught out 'swiping right' to a series of personified STIs as part of a campaign by condom brand Hero.
From 'Johnorrhoea' to 'Sydphilis' and 'Herpeia', a series of 10 fake profiles named after the diseases have been appearing as potential date options for singletons on the platform in a bid to highlight the unpleasant side-effects of what the company calls "high-risk hook-ups".
The fake profiles have been targeted towards men and women aged 18 to 24 to help combat a rise in infections such as chlamydia, AIDS and gonorrhoea.
The profiles were made to be "engaging", with quips from the likes of 'Chadmydia' reading: "Who's down for a bit of Cervix and Chill?"
While some users were quick to cotton on to the stunt, others responded as they would with a normal match.
The contraception brand enlisted Australian artist Aaron Tyler to create the five male and female STI accounts using a combination of photo-editing software and selfies from around the world to create their profile pictures.
According to a blog post from the brand, Tyler conceptualised a campaign that created Tinder profiles as common STIs, to remind people that "they could be matching with more than they bargained for". The company added: "There appears to be a direct association between Tinder and other dating apps and the rise of STIs globally."
Tinder recently took exception to an OOH drive by the AIDS Health Foundation, which it claimed had "falsely associated" it "with the contraction of venereal disease." Soon after it implemented a STD testing locator, which in turn prompted the group to remove the posters.