Dating is hard, but viral cologne reviewer Jeremy Fragrance has made it look easier than ever before thanks to a controversial new approach.

There’s no way around it: dating apps suck. They’re terrible for your mental health — partly thanks to the ‘predatory’ design methods deployed by Big Tech brands like Tinder — and any way to keep your romantic life afloat without them is good news so far as we’re concerned.

One man who may have just found a way around them is viral superstar Jeremy Fragrance. if you don’t know who he is, we cover the basics below. Suffice to say, he managed to bag himself 4000 ‘girlfriend applications’ in the space of only three days. Here’s how he did it.

Who Is Jeremy Fragrance?

Jeremy Fragrance, whose real name is Daniel Schütz, is a leading light figure in the fast-growing world of viral fragrance. After starting a YouTube channel in 2014, Schütz’s (far more successful) English-language channel quickly shot to fame, with one of his early videos earning over two million views. By 2022, his primary focus had shifted to TikTok, where he has amassed over six million followers.

In 2018, Schütz’s video “5 Reasons to Wear Fragrances” earned him the FiFi Award for the best perfume vlog from The Fragrance Foundation in New York. He successfully launched his own fragrance line through a Kickstarter campaign, raising nearly 800,000 euros. Known for his eccentric and often bizarre behaviour, Schütz emphasizes self-improvement and high self-esteem, which has turned him into something of a living meme…

Despite his runaway success, one thing that the viral star has never been able to lock in is love. Taking matters into his own hands, he recently posted a video to his social media accounts saying that he had opened up a specially dedicated email inbox — the aptly named “[email protected]” — where potential suitors could apply for the ‘position’.

Specifying that the successful candidate must be under 32 years of age and a Christian, the inbox received over 4,000 emails within the space of 72 hours and, we suspect, will still be racking up more inquiries as we type. However, while this may seem like a hugely impressive feat, and one that would surely provide him with enough avenues of amorous exploration to fill the next several months, things may not be as rosy as they seem…

Given his “living meme” status and a slew of hilarious comments, we can comfortably surmise that a fair proportion of these applications are likely to be followers — many of whom decidedly do not meet the two outlined criteria — either out for a laugh or just keen to get that little bit closer to their favourite creator.

“4000 straight men [fire emoji]” read the top comment on Schütz’s post showing the inbox. “I’m at least 400 of those,” said the next. The third was a little more separate, but followed the trend:

“Jeremy, marry me please, I’ll be a better boyfriend than any of these girls can be a girlfriend”.

Whether or not the creator finds love remains to be seen, but with almost 250,000 likes on Instagram alone for his announcement video, he’s still a heartthrob for his followers and a genius at getting them fired up.