Mamdani, Hinge, and the art of saying nothing-is quiet confidence the new marketing flex?

Earlier last week, Zohran Mamdani, the newly elected Mayor of New York City and the first South Asian to hold this position, credited the online dating app Hinge for helping him meet his wife, Rama Duwaji, an American artist. In a world where brands often scramble to transform celebrity connections into marketing campaigns overnight, such as when Bumble celebrated Priyanka Chopra's investment in women-led startups or when Tinder released its India-focused film Start Something Epic—Hinge's decision to remain silent on the Mamdani story feels almost radical. 

Founded by Justin McLeod in 2013, Hinge was born out of a personal heartbreak and built to foster meaningful connections through mutual friends. By 2016, it had rebranded as “the relationship app”, ditching swipes for conversation-driven prompts. Its parent, Match Group, which also owns Tinder and OkCupid, first invested in Hinge in 2017, took a majority stake in 2018 and fully acquired it by 2019.

The dating app, famous for its slogan, “designed to be deleted”, hasn’t posted anything on its global social channels since 2020.

Despite having the kind of organic, real-life endorsement most brands would kill for, Hinge has not posted any new campaigns, topical content, or even a cheeky repost of Mamdani's story on its global social channels since 2020. Meanwhile, the dating-app landscape is booming: India alone saw its user base jump from 20 million in 2018 to 82.4 million in 2023, a staggering 293% growth, highlighting how the category has moved beyond stigma to building cultural relevance.

This lack of activity has intrigued marketers: is Hinge’s silent confidence a clever tactic in reverse marketing, or is it a missed opportunity in a time when virality holds significant value?

The app's role as a matchmaker for one of America's most discussed political couples makes this particularly relevant.

The art of saying nothing

“Silence is premium only when the product does what it promises,” says Viren Sean Noronha, co-founder and CEO of The New Thing. “If Hinge were insecure, they’d have jumped onto the Zohran moment and overplayed it. Most brands would.

But when the internet is already celebrating you organically and credibly, even a small misstep can turn into a cringe fest. Sometimes the smartest move is to stay quiet precisely because the noise is already working in your favour.”

Vishal Prabhu, creative director–strategy at White Rivers Media, agrees that Hinge’s silence could be intentional.

“If it’s deliberate, it’s one of the boldest positioning moves in the category. It signals confidence and lets real user stories do the talking,” he notes.

“But silence is tricky. In an attention economy, mystery can quickly turn into disconnect. The internet shouldn’t be the one defining your narrative.”

The coolness of quiet confidence and its cost

While Hinge’s quiet confidence may appear appealing, it carries inherent risks.

In a category where brands usually stay loud in culture to stay relevant, Hinge does the opposite and there’s a certain cool confidence to that. You have to think a brand is cool before it earns the right to go quietly cool on you.

Saurabh Parmar, a fractional CMO with experience across various dating apps, posits that Hinge’s silence might stem from structural rather than strategic factors. “Dating apps don’t really need a local presence, but they do need local activations. The bigger issue in India is not stigma anymore; it's monetisation. India isn’t a premium-subscription-friendly market, so many apps simply don’t invest in sustained brand-building here,” he says.

He adds that brands in India often focus on problems rather than possibilities.

“Marketing that sells hope and the promise of love always wins over fear. Currently, most dating apps talk about what’s wrong with the system, not what’s possible within it.”

When culture hands you a moment

Everyone agrees that Mamdani’s story was a cultural gift, the kind of organic brand moment you can’t buy. But should Hinge have reacted?“A moment like this essentially serves as a campaign itself,” says Noronha. “The internet is already crafting the narrative for you. The pertinent question isn’t ‘Should the brand respond?’ but rather ‘How opportunistic are you willing to be?’ A single misstep could transform an organic success into a public relations debacle.”

However, Prabhu from White Rivers Media notes that even a small, authentic acknowledgement could have turned into massive earned media. 

"The risk of silence isn’t backlash; it's irrelevant. This generation expects brands to be part of the conversation, not spectators.”

Culture vs context

While the story resonated globally, Shalini Singh, founder of andwemet, points out an important cultural gap: “Zohran’s story is beautiful, but it doesn’t reflect the reality of Indian singles. He’s part of the diaspora, not someone who dated in India, where family involvement, age expectations, and social perceptions still play a huge role.”

She observes that while dating in India is evolving, the associated stigma persists. 

"Many people meet online but don’t admit it publicly. There’s still a perception that meeting online means you can't find a match through family or friends.”

For Singh, the opportunity lies in reframing dating not as rebellion, but as agency. “Platforms like ours are normalising intentional, respectful matchmaking. That’s the cultural leap Indian dating needs before stories like Zohran’s can truly resonate here.”

The bigger shift: From swipes to stories

Hinge’s silence may seem counterintuitive in an era characterised by hyperreactivity, but perhaps that was precisely the intention.

As Noronha says, “Dating apps have now become integral to our romantic infrastructure. What was once whispered about is now openly discussed.”

As Prabhu sums it up, “You don’t need a campaign to prove you work; real stories like this are the campaign. The challenge for Hinge is to stay visible without losing its voice. Sometimes, silence sells, but only if everyone’s already talking about you.”