A desperate single man forked out hundreds of pounds to advertise himself on a billboard in an attempt to find love.
Mark Rofe, 30, from Sheffield, decided to try the unique tactic after dating apps failed him, leaving him single and ‘struggling to get a date’.
The hopeful romantic, who works in marketing, is the last single member of his friend group, and after watching everyone around him get hitched he decided to try a more extreme approach to finding love.
Mark paid £425 to rent a six-metre-wide billboard in the middle of Manchester, UK, where he displayed the huge advert for himself.
Alongside a picture of the eligible bachelor, the billboard read:
Single? Date Mark.
This could be the sign you’ve been waiting for.
Visit DatingMark.co.uk.
The advertised website reveals a whole host of information about the 30-year-old, and invites visitors to ‘apply’ for a date with him.
On the site, Mark describes himself as ‘extremely handsome and modest’. He also reveals personal details such as being six foot tall with size 10 feet, a 6.82cm-long index finger – I don’t want to know why he felt that relevant – and an eye colour described as ‘#4e4f5f’, which, according to Google, is a dark, greyish-blue.
Mark also boasts he has two friends, and has kissed ‘over 3’ girls.
The marketing worker gives website visitors multiple chances to apply for a date, again indicating his desire for a match, but incredibly his brilliant, strange approach appears to be paying off.
Mark’s website includes a live application counter, which reveals 124 people have already expressed their interested in the Sheffield-based singleton. The 30-year-old told the BBC half of those are men, but while he’s ideally looking for a woman he’s still ‘very flattered’.
Speaking to the publication, he revealed the idea to create the billboard began where all good ideas do; in the pub.
He explained:
I was talking to my mate saying how I was struggling on all these dating apps and I joked that I should put my face on a big billboard.
We laughed about it but then actually I thought what a good idea.
To aid his efforts, Mark has also set up a crowdfunding page, which he is using to raise money for more billboards.
The GoFundMe page explains:
Mark already has a billboard in Manchester and set up the website DatingMark.co.uk to receive dating applications.
However, he’s not optimistic with his chances, and believes more billboards around the UK will help to increase his likelihood of success.
He’s hoping to raise enough funds to purchase billboard advertising in some of the following cities. Dublin, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Cardiff, Leeds, Sheffield, Portsmouth, Bristol, and London.
If Mark doesn’t meet his £1,600 crowdfunding goal, the money will go instead to Cancer Research. If he manages to exceed the goal, he will donate the leftover funds to the charity.
On the off chance he doesn’t find the love of his life through the website, Mark is also encouraging potential partners to slide into his DMs on Twitter.
It will be interesting to see whether his extreme search for love pays off!
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Emily Brown first began delivering important news stories aged just 13, when she launched her career with a paper round. She graduated with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University, and went on to become a freelance writer and blogger. Emily contributed to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems before becoming a journalist at UNILAD, where she works on breaking news as well as longer form features.