Tumblr distances itself from the politics and ‘masculine energy’ of other social networks in new ads

A new campaign from agency Rival launched in response to the temporary TikTok shutdown

Published On
Jan 31, 2025

Editor's Pick

From the temporary TikTok shutdown to Congressional hearings about mental health to Mark Zuckerberg’s comments about “masculine energy,” there’s a lot of bad mojo around social media—and has been for a long time.

Tumblr says, who needs all that?

In a campaign from agency Rival, put together quickly after TikTok shut itself down in the U.S. in response to the ban law, Tumblr positions itself as the positive, apolitical gathering place online that’s what social media was always meant to be.

“There’s been a lot of talk on social media about masculine energy,” the voiceover begins in the video below. “But at Tumblr, we’d like to inject some asexual trampoline ghost energy”—with a cartoon of a ghost jumping on a trampoline. 

The whole campaign is like this—framing Tumblr as a place of innocence where you can actually have positive experiences, unlike the dumpster fires of X, Facebook and the like.

 

There’s also social media and digital OOH ads in the mix (see below).

“While X’s Elon Musk and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg were becoming more polarizing and provocative, Tumblr recognized their moment,” said Tim Cawley, chief creative officer at Rival. The campaign, he said, is designed to deliver “messages of community, creativity and that rarest of qualities in a social media platform these days: longstanding stability.”

Tumblr social media ad

Tumblr social media ad

Tumblr social media ad

Tumblr social media ad

Tumblr social media ad

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Credits

Date
Jan 31, 2025
Client :
Tumblr
Agency :
Rival

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Industry
Project Type