DALLAS, April 14 (UPI) — The dating site Match.com has pulled an ad after a freckles furor.
The posters, which sprung up in London tube and train stations on Monday, featured a freckly red-haired girl and the caption, “If you don’t like your imperfections, someone else will.”
Match.com, which also owns Tinder, apologized after the public took to Twitter to express outrage.
“We believe freckles are beautiful. The intention of our ‘Love Your Imperfections’ campaign is to focus on the quirks and idiosyncrasies that people wrongly perceive to be imperfections,” the company said.
The Advertising Standards Authority received a dozen complaints about the billboard although no one there took action.
Angry riders posted photos on Twitter, calling out the dating website for “bullying.”
Londoner Carrie Hill said on Twitter, “Perhaps I’m a secret leopard. Or maybe they’re coordinates. But my freckles certainly are not ‘imperfections.’ “
Scientists aren’t sure why some people get freckles, but a SciShow episode says the cause has been linked to a gene called MC1R, which instructs certain ells to make a protein that’s involved in the production of melanin.
Launched on the web in April 1995, Match.com helped pioneer the online dating industry and now services 24 countries and territories and hosts websites in 15 languages, according to its website.
Match.com, which is owned by InterActive Corp., claims to have 59 million users.
Hey @Match — got a typo in this ad! You misspelled “perfection” as “imperfection.” #frecklesarehot #redheadsunite pic.twitter.com/UYKWf1eaSn— Erin La Rosa (@SideOfGinger) April 12, 2016
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