Durex writes a firm letter to the Unicode Consortium, pushing for a condom emoji
Durex is hardly joking when it comes to the condom emoji.
The Unicode Consortium, the group behind the emoji approval process, is convening this week and Durex has drafted an open letter asking them to approve its design.
The brand’s effort launched last November, ahead of World AIDs Day, with the #CondomEmoji hashtag, asking for it be approved in an effort to promote safe sex.
It’s still pushing firmly for it: Durex tweeted a quickie letter, combining emojis and old-fashioned words, to lobby the Unicode Consortium to approve the emoji. The cartoony icons are increasingly becoming an integral part of young people’s communication.
“A safe sex emoji will empower them to talk openly about protection,” part of it reads. “Let’s make 2016 the year emojis take safe sex seriously.”
Here’s our Open Message to @unicode on #CondomEmoji… @AIDSChicago @mtvstayingalive @THTorguk @nzafofficial pic.twitter.com/egY0VZlrSl
— Durex Global (@durex) May 9, 2016
Durex’s initiative is being supported by four organizations dedicated to AIDS and HIV awareness, including MTV’s Staying Alive foundation.
The campaign has its skeptics. “It’s possible this letter could be seen by Unicode, but it wouldn’t influence any decision on the matter,” said Emojipedia founder Jeremy Burge.
He added that brands are “baffled” by Unicode Consortium’s process, saying companies can’t launch hashtag campaigns or throw money at the organization; everyone has to follow the same application process. Durex, for its part, has gone through the proper channels and should, according to Burge, “at least be considered” by Unicode.
“Whether major vendors want to include a condom on the emoji keyboards of millions of users around the globe is another matter,” he said. If approved, the earliest the condom emoji could appear on keyboards is mid-2017.
More in Marketing
Hyve Group buys the Possible conference, and will add a meeting element to it in the future
Hyve Group, which owns such events as ShopTalk and FinTech Meetup, has agreed to purchase Beyond Ordinary Events, the organizing body behind Possible.
Agencies and marketers point to TikTok in the running to win ‘first real social Olympics’
The video platform is a crucial part of paid social plans this summer, say advertisers and agency execs.
Where Kamala Harris and Donald Trump stand on big tech issues
The next U.S. president is going to have a tough job of reining in social media companies’ dominance and power enough to satisfy lawmakers and users, while still encouraging free speech, privacy and innovation.