Taco Bell Pleads: 'America Wants a Taco Emoji. America Needs a Taco Emoji.'
ICYMI, Taco Bell wants you to think outside of the bun, even when you text -- in the form of an appetizing taco emoji, of course.
The fast-food Tex-Mex chain is serious enough about its fight for a taco-shaped electronic ideogram that it’s taking to the popular petition website Change.org to make it happen IRL. Or so the Irvine-based subsidiary of Yum! Brands hopes. And so do the 22,706 people who signed the company’s cheeky emoji petition so far. The goal is 25,000 signatures in all.
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The four-paragraph publicity stunt -- er, campaign -- is titled “The Taco Emoji Needs to Happen.” Clearly Taco Bell did its due diligence because its appeal, launched on Nov. 18, is appropriately addressed to the Unicode Consortium, the official gatekeepers of the representation of text in basically all software products.
Last June, Unicode added some 250 new emojis to an existing collectanea of approximately 850, including, of all things, the Vulcan salute (“Raised Hand With Part Between Middle And Ring Fingers”), “Man In Business Suit Levitating” and “Envelope With Lightning.” So much crazy, but no taste bud-tempting taco action. Not yet, even if, per Taco Bell, “America wants a Taco emoji,” and “America needs a taco emoji.” Obviously.
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In its petition, Taco Bell points out that, last November, Unicode announced that it’s eyeing 37 more new emoji pictographs for release later this year. Among the candidates -- you guessed it -- is a super cute taco pictograph, of the hard shell variety, topped with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes and sour cream. Hungry yet? That’s the point.
“The taco emoji is a potential candidate for the release,” reads Taco Bell’s plea, “but we need your help convincing them [the Unicode powers that be] THE TACO EMOJI NEEDS TO HAPPEN.” Yes, all caps. It’s that important. So, instead of, say, petitioning to end childhood obesity, the breakfast Waffle Taco-maker asks, “Why do pizza and hamburger lovers get an emoji but taco lovers don’t?” It’s so unfair. Stop the madness and sign the petition already.
