One of the OkCupid advertisements spotted in the Van Ness Metro station. (Photo by Rachel Kurzius)

An ad campaign that hit D.C.’s Metro trains and stations is hoping that you’re DTF.

Online dating site OkCupid is trying to reclaim the acronym, which typically stands for “Down To Fuck.” Perhaps, the ads suggest, DTF could also mean “Down To Furiously Make Out,” “Down To Floss Together,” or “Down To Focus On My Chakras,” among other phrases that are paired with brightly colored, surreal photos.

The company’s first ad campaign initially rolled out in New York City at the start of 2018, and has since expanded to other cities. It’s designed by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan and his collaborator Pierpaolo Ferrari, the pair behind Toiletpaper Magazine.

The OK Cupid ads began their WMATA run on July 16, and will be in stations through August 26 and on trains through September 23, according to Metro spokesperson Sherri Ly.

In addition to advertising through Metro, OkCupid is also bringing its campaign to local billboards and is planning “brand activations” and events like Ex-Boyfriend Bingo, says Melissa Hobley, OkCupid’s chief marketing officer.

The ads have led to some controversy elsewhere. In Portland, Or., a petition from a notorious anti-LGBTQ group calling on their transportation agency to remove the ads garnered nearly 5,000 signatures.

“OkCupid’s “DTF” advertising campaign promotes lesbian sex, prostitution, drug use, and promiscuity, and it will be viewed by millions, including children, in public spaces,” the group CitizenGO USA wrote.

OkCupid invited CitizenGO’s disapproval. “When CitizenGo boycotted the campaign, we were totally fine with that,” says Hobley. “We want nothing to do with a group associated with the homophobic practices that they’re associated with.”

Separately, a Portland woman who identifies as part of the LGBTQIA community expressed her concerns with the ads, one depicting a lesbian couple in particular who are “Down To Fall Head Over Heels,” to the Willamette Week. (That same ad, which now appears in D.C., has already led to confusion about whether the extra hands caressing one of the women were a mistake made in Photoshop—OkCupid says they’re intentional.)

TriMet, the Portland metro area’s transit agency, responded that “We cannot reject an ad if its message is protected by the Oregon Constitution—which is usually the case—because it counts as free speech and is fair game.”

WMATA, however, has a different policy in place for advertisements. Since November 2015, Metro has 14 guidelines for commercial advertising, which has led to their rejection of ads for a local women’s health clinic and, ironically, an American Civil Liberties Union ad featuring the First Amendment. The ACLU of D.C. is suing the transit authority over the guidelines, which include barring “issue-oriented” ads.

It’s not the only lawsuit Metro faces over the guidelines. Just last week, a federal appeals court sided with Metro in a lawsuit brought by the Catholic Archdiocese after a rejection of its Christmas ads. The updated guidelines were implemented after Islamophobic activist Pamela Geller submitted an ad with a depiction of the prophet Muhammad—a federal judge ordered that WMATA could not reject her prior anti-Muslim ads. Metro makes about $20 million in ad revenue annually, and Ly declined to share how much OkCupid spent on the Metro ads, saying the information was proprietary.

Hobley, of OkCupid, says that Metro accepted most of their iterations of the “DTF” ads, though not all of them. For instance, a “Down To Filter Out The Far Right” ad, with an image of a manicured hand placing a handgun in a toilet was rejected, as was “Down To Football Vs. Fútbol,” which has an image of two soccer balls and a football that resemble a penis.

The OkCupid Metro ads have apparently led at least one instance of a kid asking what “DTF” means.

I overheard a poor parent trying to explain what it is when their child asked what “DTF” means and they literally said “um.. Ducks try flying.”

— Victoria Chamberlin (@VOBOE) August 6, 2018

At the time of publication, OkCupid had not responded to a request for comment, though it did respond to a tweet of mine in which I expressed being “flummoxed” by the campaign.

“good thing we’re DTFlummox,” OkCupid wrote.

This story has been updated with comment from OkCupid and Metro.