ONE man was lonely and seeking happiness using a sandwich board offering “free hugs”. The other was broke, but dreaming of fame for his rock band.

Their chance meeting in a Sydney shopping mall sparked an unlikely partnership that has propelled the duo to stardom and international acclaim via the internet.

Juan Mann, a 21-year-old café worker, had seen his engagement broken, his parents divorce and his grandmother taken ill. He decided that the only way to lift his depression was to give away hugs to strangers in the Pitt Street Mall one afternoon a week.

Shimon Moore, 20, whose band Sick Puppies was struggling for recognition, had a job he loathed and mounting bills, but never gave up hope of the lucky break. He watched as strangers read Mann’s “free hugs” sign and was moved to take up the offer himself, asking, as most did of Mann, why he gave away the hugs.

When Mann said that he simply wanted to make others smile, Moore decided to make a short film of his new friend in action. That was two years ago. A month ago Moore posted the grainy black and white film on youTube, the self-broadcast website, using his band’s song All The Same as a soundtrack.

By noon yesterday the film had been watched by a worldwide audience of 3.8 million — making Mann the fastest rising star ever to be posted on youTube and propelling Sick Puppies to the airplay they had always dreamed of.

The band have already won a recording contract and a debut album is due out before Christmas.

Mann, meanwhile, was flown out of Sydney at the weekend for a guest appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show in America. Despite his new-found fame he remains darkly philosophical about his prospects. “The spotlight will shine for a while but it will fade in the end. It’s exciting, but my life is just going to carry on as it always has,” he said.

Moore had almost forgotten the footage. However, when Mann’s grandmother died, Moore was moved to edit the shots in his bedroom and send the film to Mann.

“There I was feeling really sad and down and I open my mailbox one day and he has sent me this little CD with the video clip and a song he’d written for me,” Mann said.

“It wasn’t created for any reason except to make my mate happy again,” said Moore. “And it just wound up growing into this thing that has now made everyone else happy.”

YouTube has created past instant celebrities such as Lonely Girl, whose frequent video posts about her life generated a large following until she was exposed as an actress seeking work. A rival website, MySpace, is credited with propelling the band Arctic Monkeys to early fame, and the singer Lily Allen also built up a following on the internet.

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