STI Tinder profiles pulled after facing public backlash

Remember those Tinder profiles of personified STIs? People found them offensive. Go figure.

Swipe left. Source: Tinder

Following the great onslaught of public backlash faced by Hero Condoms, the Australian brand has pulled down their personified STI Tinder profiles.

Earlier this week, Tinder users in Sydney noticed ten new profiles on the dating app. These profiles featured names and bios inspired by common sexually-transmitted infections - with names like "Chlaramydia," "Herpeia," and "Johnorrhoea".

Hero intended for the profiles to encourage safe-sex among young people who used the dating app.

However several members of the public as well as noted HIV/AIDs activist, Nic Holas, found the profiles to be in poor taste, cheapening both the gravity of these illnesses and those who live with them.

(via Tinder) Source: Tinder

Prior to acknowledging Hero's apology, Holas shared this comment about the Tinder campaign in a editorial he wrote for Gay Network News.

"You might think it’s clever to depict HIV/AIDS as a 'positive kind of gal who likes to have fun', but I can assure you that most women living with HIV wouldn’t like being depicted as killing their partners 'one white blood cell at a time,'" wrote Nic Holas who is the co-founder of The Institute of Many, a peer-run community of people living with HIV.

Facebook commentators also joined in the discussion, with one saying, "Those HIV ones are way off the mark and go against 1. what HIV education looks like over the past ten years and 2. what HIV-positive living actually looks like in Western countries. The false equivalence to HIV and AIDS is damaging to those who live with HIV everyday."

(via Tinder) Source: Tinder

Each of Hero's STI profiles were riddled with double entendre and innuendo, aiming to describe both the symptoms and reactions to the disease each profile personifies.

Herperia's bio concedes "talking about [her] will be awkward" and suggests potential matches "tell everyone [they] met at a 'bar'". 

Another, Aidy, which personifies HIV/AIDS, "take things slow: One white blood cell at a time, for the rest of your life".

(via Tinder) Source: Tinder

Once matched, the STI explained to their match the ways to prevent contracting the disease in a bid to promote safe-sex.

One of many anecdotes from these matches include one gentleman who asked Gonorrheeta where she was from.

Her response was, "I'm from unprotected sex usually."

(via Tinder) Source: Tinder

You can read the rest of the profiles below:

(via Tinder) Source: Tinder

(via Tinder) Source: Tinder

(via Tinder) Source: Tinder

(via Hero) Source: Supplied

(via Tinder) Source: Tinder

(via Tinder) Source: Tinder