I have got some garden furniture to sell and need to let people know that. But the last time I used the small ads to sell a pram not one person answered, leaving me both rejected and dejected.

A card on the wall of my local supermarket also generated no response, and friends have had similar experiences.

I was busy thinking up ways of attracting people's attention -- throw in a holiday to Filey, offer myself up as a dinner date (most people like Burger King, don't they?), when I read about a new craze sweeping the country.

Flash mobbing is fast developing into the nation's favourite hobby. It hasn't reached East Lancs yet -- although plans could be under way as I write -- but it has crept north as far as Sheffield so it's only a matter of time.

Already popular in America and much of Europe, someone places an advert to which a crowd of people respond. The ad asks them to descend upon a particular place, carry out a small meaningless task, then leave as quickly as they arrived. This month Britain experienced its first, when 300 people descended upon a sofa shop in London. It is a bizarre pastime, but it obviously grabs people's attention.

I also read recently about how a man carried out a small social experiment by placing the words 'Join Me' in the small ads section of his local newspaper.

He gave no further details other than his address. One person replied, but further adverts pulled in many more dozens in fact and he now has thousands of 'followers' who occasionally get together and perform simple tasks. People actively seek out other people all the time, joining sports clubs, social clubs, the ramblers, mums and toddlers.

All have a purpose.

But for vast numbers to be eager to join others with no real idea as to why is scary.

It is reminiscent of biblical times, with huge crowds willing to gather and follow instructions given to them by a complete stranger.

I put it down to the air of mystery and intrigue. Nowadays, so many people seem so desperate to escape their hum-drum existence that they are forever looking for excitement, and the more ambiguous the activity, the better. I have succumbed myself in days-gone-by. I remember, more than a decade ago, getting into a car with four other people at midnight outside my sister's London home and spending the next six hours being driven across the Home Counties following a trail of flyers (adverts, to you and me) left in telephone boxes giving cryptic clues as to how to find a (probably fictitious as we never did get there) rave in a barn in the middle of a field.

So, what has all this to do with my garden furniture? I want to get people interested and obviously the key is to be as vague and as weird as possible. I thought maybe the words: "Try It Out" next to my phone number or better still, "GF4U," or -- my preferred choice, simply: "Here."

So if you spot a crowd similar in size to that which gathers every Sunday morning outside the Vatican, standing outside a house in a terraced street, chanting and seemingly paying homage to a rustic bench and two chairs you will know why.