Bachelor’s Birmingham billboard love quest revealed as dating app publicity stunt

Earlier this month, a single-man made headlines after forking out hundreds of pounds on giant billboards advertising himself in an attempt to find a wife.

Several giant billboards were unveiled across Birmingham, which featured a picture of Mohammad Malik, 29, lying down flashing a cheeky grin for the camera and joking: “Save me from an arranged marriage”.

The massive advert - which appears on at least three billboards across the city - directs suitors to his website: Findmailkawife.com.

The billboards appeared in Perry Barr, Sparkbrook and Hockley.

Thousands of people contacted Mohammad following the advertisement, but it has now been revealed that although Mohammad is single and looking to get married, his quest for love is also part of a publicity campaign by a dating app.

The campaign is actually a collaboration between Mohammad and the Muslim dating app Muzmatch.

Mohammad’s website now says ‘find Malik a wife on Muzmatch’.

In an interview with The Guardian, Mohammad, revealed: “This was an idea that was presented to me and I thought: it’s genuine, I’m 100% looking.

“But these guys just absolutely took it on steroids. I’ve always been a bit tongue in cheek. A bit quirky. I’ve done a bit of stand-up comedy. So I think it was quite in line with that.”

‘He is replying to candidates and looking for love’

The company added that the campaign is real, and that Mohammed is genuinely looking for love.

Shahzad Younas, the chief executive of Muzmatch, said: “Malik is a real singleton who is seriously looking for a partner. He is not employed by Muzmatch and never has been.

“Malik has been on a few photo shoots for us for various bits of social media as well as for billboards for other companies and hence is comfortable around being out there.

“I’ve known Malik as a friend for while now, and the idea came about together as we bounced ideas of doing a campaign - how about we really be creative and help Malik get married. We came up with the idea together and he was up for doing it.

“The goal was two sets of billboards - the initial one and the reveal billboards (visible on the findamalik.com website). The reveal ones are hitting the streets now.

Mohammad, a Muslim from London, works as a innovation consultant and entrepreneur, and said he considers Birmingham his second home due to its great mosques and top quality food.

Mr Younas said Mohammad has received thousands of responses on the website and has been getting in touch with candidates.

He added: “We didn’t expect it to go so viral so soon and did ask the media company if they could post up the reveal billboards sooner however we are limited by their timetable of when they post billboards.

“Malik is still actively replying back to candidates and is taking things forward with those he feels he is compatible with as well as being boosted on the Muzmatch app himself

“We do not believe the campaign was misleading - no doubt it was creative - however it was crucial to us that Malik was genuinely single and genuinely looking to get married given real people would be responding to the campaign.”

What had Mohammad said about his search for a wife in his own words?

Explaining his reason to go to such drastic measures to find Mrs Right, Mohammad explained: “I just haven’t found the right girl yet. It’s tough out there.

“I had to get a billboard to get seen.

“My ideal partner would be a Muslim woman in her 20s, who’s striving to better her deen.

“I’m open to any ethnicity but I’ve got a loud Punjabi family - so you’d need to keep with the bants.

“Always personality and faith over anything else.

“I’m an only child and look after my mom and dad. If this is a deal-breaker I don’t think it’ll work out.”

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