2008 Woodie Awards
Phony phone number trick goes mainstream
Aline Mendelsohn ; The Orlando Sentinel (KRT)
Issue date: 11/19/05 Section: Life
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It's an age-old mating ritual, not unlike a courtship ceremony you might see on the Discovery Channel.
The male species puffs out his chest, struts over to the female, fumbles through some conversation, perhaps buys her an Appletini, and, if all goes well, scores her cell-phone number.
After the respectable three days have passed (remember the movie Swingers?), the male calls the female. But if she has given him the number 407-970-8278, he is in for a rude surprise.
"You've reached the Rejection Hotline!" a cheerful voice says. " ... Unfortunately, the person who gave you this number did not want you to have their real number." Then the voice rattles off a host of reasons for the rejection _ arrogance, body odor, a "psycho-stalker vibe."
The man behind the voice, Jeff Goldblatt, originated the Rejection Hotline four years ago. He was at an Atlanta bar and observed a man flirting with an uninterested woman, who ultimately told the man to get away from her.
Even the man's friends were laughing at him. There had to be a less humiliating way of rejecting someone, Goldblatt figured. So he recorded a Rejection Hotline message, first as a joke, but then word spread. Today, about 1.6 million callers dial the number each month, Goldblatt says. Local numbers are available for about 30 cities. Goldblatt, an MBA student at Emory University, also runs rejectionhotline.com, a site that makes a profit through advertisements, sponsorships and products for sale such as Rejection Hotline underwear.
Goldblatt estimates that 98 percent of callers dial for fun.
As for those who take it seriously, Goldblatt says, "We like to think it's a public service." (By "we," Goldblatt is referring to himself and his tribe of unpaid interns.)
He says it's a service to both sides, particularly the reject, who saves face instead of enduring a public rejection.
Nice it is not.
Receiving the number could be crushing, says Elayne Savage, author of "Don't Take it Personally! The Art of Dealing with Rejection."
The male species puffs out his chest, struts over to the female, fumbles through some conversation, perhaps buys her an Appletini, and, if all goes well, scores her cell-phone number.
After the respectable three days have passed (remember the movie Swingers?), the male calls the female. But if she has given him the number 407-970-8278, he is in for a rude surprise.
"You've reached the Rejection Hotline!" a cheerful voice says. " ... Unfortunately, the person who gave you this number did not want you to have their real number." Then the voice rattles off a host of reasons for the rejection _ arrogance, body odor, a "psycho-stalker vibe."
The man behind the voice, Jeff Goldblatt, originated the Rejection Hotline four years ago. He was at an Atlanta bar and observed a man flirting with an uninterested woman, who ultimately told the man to get away from her.
Even the man's friends were laughing at him. There had to be a less humiliating way of rejecting someone, Goldblatt figured. So he recorded a Rejection Hotline message, first as a joke, but then word spread. Today, about 1.6 million callers dial the number each month, Goldblatt says. Local numbers are available for about 30 cities. Goldblatt, an MBA student at Emory University, also runs rejectionhotline.com, a site that makes a profit through advertisements, sponsorships and products for sale such as Rejection Hotline underwear.
Goldblatt estimates that 98 percent of callers dial for fun.
As for those who take it seriously, Goldblatt says, "We like to think it's a public service." (By "we," Goldblatt is referring to himself and his tribe of unpaid interns.)
He says it's a service to both sides, particularly the reject, who saves face instead of enduring a public rejection.
Nice it is not.
Receiving the number could be crushing, says Elayne Savage, author of "Don't Take it Personally! The Art of Dealing with Rejection."