"Callin' Oates" Hotline Goes Viral
The "emergency" number gives callers on-demand access to four of Hall & Oates' greatest hits.
| Posted Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2011, at 4:23 PM
Photograph by Kevin Winter/Getty Images.
Whether it’s the holidays or Washington’s partisan gridlock that have you down, some anonymous kind souls have the answer: An emergency Hall & Oates hotline! Yep, it’s pretty much exactly what it sounds like, and it's already begun to make the rounds via Twitter and the good old-fashioned email forward.
In case you haven't yet connected the dots: Anyone who calls the number (719-26-OATES) is greeted with some on-demand music from Daryl Hall and John Oates. Callers have the choice of listening to any of four of the duo's greatest hits.
Some are guessing it’s a viral marketing campaign (for an online music site, perhaps), but everyone but the biggest Hall & Oates haters can probably agree it’s one part clever and two parts delightful. (FWIW, 719 is a Colorado area code.) [Update: The Verge tracked down the guys behind the stunt.]
The AtlanticWire took the trouble of transcribing the automated message:
Welcome to Callin' Oates: Your Emergency Hall and Oates Hotline
To hear "One on One" press 1
To hear "Rich Girl" press 2
To hear "Maneater" press 3
To hear "Private Eyes" press 4
And BuzzFeed went one better by video taping the action for those who can't spare three of their cellphone minutes (although we would have gone with "Private Eyes"):
