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Rejection line provides automated dumping service (and satire on dating) |
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Score
74%
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7 votes,
Feasibility
92%
Originality
80%
Humour
90% |
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The Problem:
Shy people finding break-ups difficult
The Social Invention:
Hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers are using the city’s rejection hotline as a succinct method of refusing unwanted sexual advances. The rejection line is a set of digits disguised as a genuine phone number for use on undesirable suitors who move in to ‘seal’ the relationship ‘deal’ by requesting telephone contact details. Notwithstanding a fleeting guilt-rush, the dumper sits back and reaps the benefits of confrontation-free rejection. When eagerly called, the bogus number connects unwanted romantics to a recorded rejection message, candidly dumping them.
Blunt but effectively worded, the message begins “Welcome to the New York City Rejection Line. Unfortunately, the person who gave you this number does not want to talk to you or speak to you again. We would like to take this opportunity to officially reject you”. It proceeds to give support options activated by pressing buttons 1 2 or 3.
'Dating has become so dehumanised that people need an automated system to reject someone'Conceived by brother and sister Jonah and Chelsea Peretti, the idea was intended as a functional repellent to a familiar routine, but also as a parody of the notoriously superficial New York dating scene. “It’s the idea that dating has become so dehumanised that people need an automated system to help them reject someone”, explains Jonah.
The only hotline designed specifically to crush the caller has really taken off, being employed by 16 US states. Britain also now has its own rejection line, which is rumoured to have been used by the likes of glamour model Jordan and actress Liz Hurley. Many countries worldwide are considering providing a similar service. Thankfully, the drawback posed by the dumpee’s recognition of the fateful number has been overcome by the introduction of personalised rejection numbers – available to US heartbreakers for just $8 a year.
- Currently operational Rejection Lines include: New York City Rejection Line +1 212-478-7990. For more info and to purchase rejection paraphernalia visit www.rejectiononline.com.
- UK Rejection Line 09061 100 596 – visit LazyStudent.co.uk. Personalised rejection numbers can be obtained at GotRejected.com
Summarised from an article, entitled ‘Rejection line lets shy people give bad dates the brush-off’, in The Examiner (July 2nd 2002). This item was monitored for the Global Ideas Bank by Roger Knights. A comedy routine by Simon Feilder also provided a reminder of the idea’s potential.
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