A new person going viral in his bid to find a wife through a billboard ad, the person who first introduced the trend has lifted the lid on what happened after his experiment – and what he thinks of the copycats.

In February 2020, Mark Rofe, 32, from Sheffield, paid £425 for a 10-foot high and 20-foot wide billboard to find love and since then, many others have followed in his footsteps.

The latest lovelorn fella is Muhammad Malik, 29, who has erected ads in London and Birmingham with the tongue-in-cheek caption “save me from an arranged marriage”.

“There have been several of these types of billboards since I did mine, and I’m sure there will be plenty more to come too,” Rofe said.

“I’m always happy to see them when they are done for genuine reasons, and Malik’s does appear to be genuine.

"It takes balls to do something like this, so I have a lot of respect for that alone.

“I hope it works out for him. I am sure there was perhaps some inspiration taken from the billboard I did, and if that is the case when Malik finds his wife from it, I hope I at least get an invite to the wedding.”

Although Mark had over 2,000 requests and did eventually end up in a relationship thanks to the unusual stunt, he didn't find love from the ad.

Now in a new relationship with someone he met in person, he admits he might approach it differently in hindsight – especially as his new girlfriend told him she saw the ad but would never have considered applying because she thought he "looked too desperate".

Mark, who is the founder of Christmastrees.co.uk, said: “I don’t regret doing the billboard, but it comes with challenges and pressures that I hadn’t considered or foreseen.

“The media attention and ‘going viral’ is a double-edged sword, it’s helpful for getting the word out, but on the other hand it was incredibly overwhelming.

“It all became a little too much, to the point where, looking back, I probably wasn’t in the right frame of mind to be dating just after I did the billboard.

“There are other pressures too, you can’t date everyone – or marry everyone, in Malik’s case – so you’re going to reject a lot of people.

"I was conscious of the fact that it takes courage to apply to date someone from a billboard ad, and I didn’t want anyone to come away from it feeling rejected or disappointed.

“Then there’s the other additional pressure of, what if I put up this billboard, and then I still don’t find someone?”

Two years on, Mark also has some advice for what he thinks others need to do to make something like this successful.

Details are very important, even down to the font.

He added: “Use comic sans, it is the font of love, so I was disappointed to see that Malik hadn’t used it.

“Be specific in what you are looking for.

"I didn’t specify my sexuality (straight), and at one point half my applications were from men.

“Have a thick skin, the internet can be a harsh place so be prepared to be called all sorts of things."

With a new man going viral this week in his bid to find a wife through a billboard ad, the person who first introduced the trend has lifted the lid on what happened after his experiment – and what he thinks of the copycats.

In February 2020, Mark Rofe, 32, from Sheffield, paid £425 for a 10-foot high and 20-foot wide billboard to find love and since then, many others have followed in his footsteps.

The latest lovelorn fella is Muhammad Malik, 29, who has erected ads in London and Birmingham with the tongue-in-cheek caption “save me from an arranged marriage”.

“There have been several of these types of billboards since I did mine, and I’m sure there will be plenty more to come too,” Mark told Jam Press.

“I’m always happy to see them when they are done for genuine reasons, and Malik’s does appear to be genuine.

"It takes balls to do something like this, so I have a lot of respect for that alone.

“I hope it works out for him. I am sure there was perhaps some inspiration taken from the billboard I did, and if that is the case when Malik finds his wife from it, I hope I at least get an invite to the wedding.”

But does billboard dating really work?

Although Mark had over 2,000 requests and did eventually end up in a relationship thanks to the unusual stunt, he didn't find love from the ad.

Now in a new relationship with someone he met in person, he admits he might approach it differently in hindsight – especially as his new girlfriend told him she saw the ad but would never have considered applying because she thought he "looked too desperate".

Mark, who is the founder of Christmastrees.co.uk, said: “I don’t regret doing the billboard, but it comes with challenges and pressures that I hadn’t considered or foreseen.

“The media attention and ‘going viral’ is a double-edged sword, it’s helpful for getting the word out, but on the other hand it was incredibly overwhelming.

“It all became a little too much, to the point where, looking back, I probably wasn’t in the right frame of mind to be dating just after I did the billboard.

“There are other pressures too, you can’t date everyone – or marry everyone, in Malik’s case – so you’re going to reject a lot of people.

"I was conscious of the fact that it takes courage to apply to date someone from a billboard ad, and I didn’t want anyone to come away from it feeling rejected or disappointed.

“Then there’s the other additional pressure of, what if I put up this billboard, and then I still don’t find someone?”

Two years on, Mark also has some advice for what he thinks others need to do to make something like this successful.

Details are very important, even down to the font.

He added: “Use comic sans, it is the font of love, so I was disappointed to see that Malik hadn’t used it.

“Be specific in what you are looking for.

"I didn’t specify my sexuality (straight), and at one point half my applications were from men.

“Have a thick skin, the internet can be a harsh place so be prepared to be called all sorts of things.