Ford aims to add a pickup truck emoji to every smartphone by early 2020.
There are over 3,000 approved emoji icons, but somehow the almighty pickup has been overlooked. How can this be — especially here in America where the truck is the most popular vehicle in the country?
Don’t worry; Ford aims to fix this, and in the most American way. The new emoji will, of course, look very much like a Ford. It just wouldn’t happen any other way in our capitalist society. And the emoji will also always point left. We’ll assume that’s a nod to America’s top race series, NASCAR, as the emoji can only turn left.
https://youtu.be/umv1tCTkLa4
Ford Pickup Truck Emoji
Ford has apparently been working behind the scenes with an ad agency for more than 2 years to make sure that a pickup truck emoji happens, and it looks like a Ford. The proposed design is an extended-cab pickup that looks like a cross between an F-150 and Ranger. Of course, it’s also in Ford Blue.
“Given the popularity of Ford trucks globally, there’s no one better than Ford to help bring an all-new pickup truck emoji to hardworking texters around the globe,” said Joe Hinrichs, Ford’s president, automotive.
The Emoji Overlords
Unicode is a universal coding standard, controlled by the Unicode Consortium, that allows all languages and characters to be understood and represented by computers.
A big part of Unicode is the adoption and release of new emojis. People regularly submit new emojis for consideration, but they must meet some basic criteria for selection.
The main criteria are as follows: “a) will the image work at the small size at which emoji are commonly used, b) does the emoji add to what can be said using emoji or can the idea be expressed using existing emoji, c) is there substantial evidence that a large number of people will likely use this new emoji.”
Fingers crossed the pickup truck emoji finds its way to our phones around June 2020. The emoji overlords over at the Unicode Consortium have accepted it for consideration but are still determining whether to give final approval.
Bringing Emojis Into the Real World
Think about this: You will soon be able to show an emoji of a Ford pickup in the window of your Ford pickup. Mind blown! How can you do this, you might ask? Well, check out the forthcoming Mojipic emoji display for vehicles.
