A man who walked the streets wearing a sign advertising for a new girlfriend has now announced he is getting married.
Adam Sanyo had broken up with a long-term partner and moved to Cambridge when he decided to try something novel in 2015.
Then 26, he walked around London and Cambridge with a huge board that read: "Hi there stranger, my name is Adam and I am looking for a girlfriend."
He also used a social media campaign with videos and a hashtag as part of his “social experiment”.
Now 32, Mr Sanyo is now engaged to marry his fiancé Eszter, 26, in October.
However, the pair did not meet through his advertising campaign. They met the more traditional way at a party.
After spending lockdown together for 10 months without fighting, they decided to get married.
Reflecting on his "social experiment" to find a girlfriend, Mr Sanyo, who now works as a data analyst, said he still thinks it was a great idea.
He said: "I was single for about two years at that point. My one and only long-term relationship ended in June 2013, and I was feeling kind of lonely.
"I moved to Cambridge in March 2015 from London, and I did not have any friends I could meet on weekdays.
"Therefore, I decided that I should improve my dating chances and the creation of this sign seemed like a good idea to meet many people in a short time period."
Mr Sanyo's sign said: "Hi there stranger. My name is Mr Sanyo and I am looking for a girlfriend.
"I work in an environment where 85 per cent of my colleagues are male so I did not have much of a chance to find love there.
"But here I am and it is time to put this method to the test."
He also crafted another clever sign for "Lonely Geek Ltd," recruiting for the position of “girlfriend”.
The sign went on to list some trivia about Mr Sanyo, including his birth year, 1988, his "liberal approach to many things" and his interest in politics.
It states that he is "Looking for someone who has a passion for travelling, has a weird sense of humour, is interested in politics and has good life skills".
He released a video detailing his weight and height, and saying he had a BA in English and Linguistics.
Mr Sanyo also showed potential dates an average day in his life - posing at his desk, taking part in local politics and playing tennis and video games.
"So the question is, would you like to play a part in my life?" he added, asking people to contact him by email if they were interested.
He made a list of his must-haves, saying he was not concerned about looks but needed someone aged 22 to 30 with a degree, fully employed, and with a two-year relationship already under their belt.
He ended the video by quipping: "See you, my future girlfriend!"
Looking back, Mr Sanyo said he didn't regret the experience.
He said: "I think it was a great experiment, because it showed me how people react to my openness and my unique approach to dating.
"At that time, I read that an average person must talk to about 100 people online to find their partner, and I felt that it takes too much time to go through this process.
"So the sign was designed to be a shortcut to this dating struggle I had.”
The technical writer moved back home to Budapest a year after, where he met Eszter while working at a Hungarian grassroots political movement.
Mr Sanyo said: "Even though we met in 2017, we only started dating in late November 2018, when a reunion party was held for members of this movement.
"We had a longer chat this time and we immediately connected on many levels. I actually talked to her about the sign I made in 2015, and she thought that it had been an amazing idea.
He added: "I am very happy that I found someone who can deal with my unique personality.
“It is great to meet someone who loves me the way I am, and I also love my partner, especially because she accepts my geeky side."
Mr Sanyo proposed to Eszter after the couple spent an entire ten months together during lockdown, and fell even more in love.
He said: "I felt that since we managed to endure this very difficult period without any major fights, then we should get married.
"Fortunately, she said yes to my proposal, and we are currently in the final stages of our wedding preparation, the wedding will be in October."
Mr Sanyo added: "Even though the sign did not work at the time, I am happy that I tried using this approach to dating, but at the same time I am glad that I do not need to go on random dates any more, because I found my future wife through our shared interest in politics."
