‘Find Malik a wife’ billboard revealed to be publicity stunt
A BILLBOARD advert asking people to “save” a man from an arranged marriage and “find Malik a wife” has been revealed as a publicity stunt.
Thousands of women contacted the lonely bachelor who was apparently advertising himself on billboards to find a wife.
Mohammad Malik, 29, was pictured lying down on huge hoardings across Birmingham with the words: “Save me from an arranged marriage.”
He also set up a website, Findmailkawife.com, in order to catch the eye of a potential partner.
But Muslim dating app Muzmatch has now revealed it was behind the publicity stunt but stresses Mohammad – a stand-up comedian – is still looking for love.
Now, when users try to reach Mohammad’s website, it has been rebranded to “Find Malik a wife on MuzMatch”, with hopeful suitors being directed to the dating app.
Mohammad, speaking about the revelation that it was a publicity stunt, said Muzmatch’s marketing team pitched the campaign to him late last year.
He denied the campaign was disingenuous and said: “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.”
Shahzad Younas, the chief executive of Muzmatch, said: “Malik was very keen to stress that there’s nothing wrong with an arranged marriage. For a lot of people it works. The whole premise touches more upon how young Muslims are increasingly becoming empowered through Muzmatch to find their own partner, but still do it in a way that’s respectful of their faith, their traditions, their culture.”