Are you an aficionado of emojis? Extremely vocal about safe intercourse? Do you often find yourself in situations in which you’d like to have a quick way to send a tiny picture of a condom to people you communicate with via instant messaging? Durex feels your pain and is currently petitioning for – you’ve guessed it – a condom emoji. Earlier this week, the company released a video of its open letter to the Unicode Consortium nonprofit group responsible for organizing and approving new additions for the Unicode writing system.
Not only has Durex openly asked Unicode Consortium to add a condom emoji into its next batch of approved Unicode characters, but the company also took the liberty of designing its very own submission. The timing of this letter is also no coincidence, as Unicode Consortium is holding a meeting at Adobe Systems in San Jose, California later this week. In its request, Durex explains that it believes a condom emoji wouldn’t just be another frivolous addition to world’s visual language, but also means for empowering teenagers and young adults to openly talk about protection, noting how quality communication is “vital” in preventing sexually transmittable diseases.
It’s currently unlikely that this unconventional request from Durex will be granted by the Unicode Consortium, especially as we’re still waiting for approval of much less controversial additions to the Unicode writing system like bacon and facepalm emoji. It’s also worth noting that some people on social networks have recognized this open letter as just a PR stunt by the company looking to draw attention to itself and its products, but Durex has a pretty solid response to those accusations given how the company originally requested this exact same emoji during last year’s World AIDS Day in December.
In any case, you can check out the aforementioned video from Durex below and join the discussion of this issue on Twitter with the hashtag #CondomEmoji. It’s worth noting that the company is taking this issue to the Unicode Consortium because keyboards and other software such as WhatsApp cannot add new emoji without the operating system “understanding” them which not only requires an update of Unicode definitions, but also of the OS itself.