Anti-meth pamphlet mistakenly lists singles chat line
About 60,000 copies of 200,000 planned mailers were sent to dozens of Tennessee counties before the error was caught.
“It was an unfortunate mistake,” said Wally Kirby, executive director of the Tennessee District Attorney Generals Conference, which sponsored the mailing.
The mailer referred to a toll-free number for a drug hot line operated by the Tennessee Association of Alcohol and Drug Services.
But callers dialing that number heard a recorded message: “Talk to people just like you, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.” A female speaker then gave another toll-free number, which offered “hot girls just waiting to talk to you” for a minimum charge of 99 cents per minute.
The correct number for the drug help line is 1-800-889-9789.
Allan Brandon, head of Brandon and Associates Direct Mail in Smyrna, which produced the mailer, said the mistake was “a typo. We hated that it happened.”
District Attorney General Mickey Layne of Manchester said he had received no complaints from citizens.
“However, I have had several friends to rib me for the wrong number,” Layne said. “This, too, shall pass. This was just a small piece of the program. I don’t think the message is going to be hurt because one person got a number wrong.”
In January, a company that administers the state’s health care program, TennCare, mistakenly listed a toll-free help number for customers that led to a similar singles chat line.