Just before Valentine’s Day 2005, Virgin Mobile Australia launched a service called “SOS”. This service was designed to help out anyone with a Virgin mobile who found themselves on a disastrous date and needed an excuse to escape.

Virgin customers simply dialled SOS or 767 from their mobile phone and in less than a minute would receive a call back with a pre-recorded excuse for them to announce to their date and escape.

The viral website www.drdate.com.au and the character Dr Date were created to spread awareness to the online service and to make it available beyond the Virgin customer base.