Truck owners take heart. In addition to poop, cats and puppy dogs, a blue pickup emoji created by Ford (shown above) may soon be joining the world’s vast line-up of text message icons.
Well, maybe it’s not so vast since oddly enough there are no pickup trucks among the transportation-related emoji texted each day. Not sure why that is considering that pickups rank as the most popular selling vehicles in the U.S.
But Ford, with its best-selling F-Series trucks, hopes to change that so long as the Unicode Consortium, the organization that reviews and approves proposals for new emoji, green lights the short-bed icon. Ford, which submitted its truck emoji for approval in 2018, announced today—on World Emoji Day, no less—that their tiny truck has been short-listed as a candidate for inclusion in a future version of Unicode. (Watch their hilarious video below.)
“When customers started demanding a truck emoji, we knew we had to help make it happen,” said Joe Hinrichs, Ford’s president, automotive. “Given the popularity of Ford trucks globally, there’s no one better than Ford to help bring an all-new pickup truck emoji to hard-working texters around the globe.”
The concept emoji’s styling has been tuned to meet current trends. (Seriously, it’s an emoji, but nonetheless, Ford was taking no chances as the video below makes perfectly clear.)
“Our team spent a lot of time digging through message boards, texting influencers and watching social media feeds to really understand our customers’ needs,” said Craig Metros, Ford North America design director. “People want a truck emoji that’s fresh, stylish, carries their ideas, and ‘tows’ the line on what a truck means. The end result is a modern icon that should give all truck fans a smiley face emoji.”
If the pickup truck emoji is approved in early 2020, the design will be customized for all mobile platforms to meet the needs of customers – from skilled tradespeople to active families and emoji lovers alike. Hmmm…does that mean a Raptor emoji might be coming?
