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Companies Want To Insert Ads Into Unicode (thenextweb.com)

Posted by Soulskill on from the do-not-want dept.

AmiMoJo writes: Food company Nestle has started a petition to get a KitKat emoji into the Unicode standard. They aren't alone, Taco Bell wants a taco emoji added, and Durex suggested adding a condom. While the latter two are at least generic, KitKat is a trademark of Nestle and the "break" image a key part of their marketing. Next year Unicode will include a faceplam emoji (U+1F926) for occasions such as this.

31 of 262 comments (clear)

  1. Sure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Just assign the images, trademarks and logos over to the public domain and we are done.

    1. Re:Sure by ericloewe · · Score: 2

      Who needs cow emojis if you have cowsay?

  2. So? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I don't see a problem with having yet another useless character that few people will ever use. However, the use of a grassroots petitioning service like change.org to advance a corporate agenda is much more troubling and a very cynical move by (well-known evildoers) Nestle.

    1. Re:So? by Coren22 · · Score: 2

      If you feel so strongly about his, perhaps you should open a competing petition stating that Nestle should not be allowed to force their trademark into the Unicode database without also having to give up the trademark. The proper way to fight an inappropriate petition is to file a competing petition, not bitch about it as an AC on Slashdot.

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    2. Re: So? by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 2

      uh, we're on a site founded by CmdrTaco.

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  3. slowpoke.jpg? by Lunix+Nutcase · · Score: 3, Insightful

    There already is a taco emoji. It's in Unicode 8.0.

    1. Re:slowpoke.jpg? by EvilSS · · Score: 2

      There already is a taco emoji. It's in Unicode 8.0.

      The Taco Bell petition was from 2014 before it was added. Whoever submitted the summary wasn't paying attention I guess.

      --
      I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
  4. Time to fork unicode by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    This is pure rubbish. We dont need more crap gunking things up. Make advertising illegal.

  5. Why emojis/emoticons are in Unicode? by Parker+Lewis · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Can someone explain me why emojis are in Unicode at all?

    1. Re:Why emojis/emoticons are in Unicode? by undecim11 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Japan

    2. Re:Why emojis/emoticons are in Unicode? by OzPeter · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Can someone explain me why emojis are in Unicode at all?

      What emojis? People keep sending me texts that my RAZR flip phone* renders as solid white boxes.

      Now get off my lawn

      * I actually do use an original RAZR flip phone that is going on 7 years old now. It makes phone calls.

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    3. Re:Why emojis/emoticons are in Unicode? by Parker+Lewis · · Score: 2

      ROAAAARRRRR!

      I can comprehend the demand, just cannot comprehend why insert in Unicode table. It's used for "official", spoken charset languages, not trend.

      Can you realize how bad will if we got the 90's emoticons on it, then after they got no more used, inflate Unicode with all the internet 2000's expressions too, and then very new decade, the new trend inflating Unicode after the old one got no more used?

      Why not keep Unicode for the languages charsets, and create a separate table for this kind of demand?

    4. Re:Why emojis/emoticons are in Unicode? by TWX · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Because the newest generation likes to express themselves differently than the dinosaurs...

      Believe me the demand is there, just because you can't comprehend it doesn't mean it shouldn't exist.

      I'm sure that lots of people disagree with me, but historically the most creative writing emerged when base words and concepts were generally not acceptable in speech. Sure, it's censorship, but on the other hand, you don't find Shakespeare to simply be dialogue loaded-down with vulgar words either, and when vulgarities are employed, sparingly, they are highly effective.

      Emojis are a form of base communications, when one does not take the time to express one's self properly. That doesn't mean that there isn't a place for them, but it isn't unfair to judge people by their choice to use them instead of the express themselves otherwise.

      --
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    5. Re:Why emojis/emoticons are in Unicode? by NMBob · · Score: 2

      They like to be less precise/more vague so there's plausible deniability when they go for a job interview. Or maybe they CAN'T be more precise/less vague. Hmmm.

    6. Re:Why emojis/emoticons are in Unicode? by ljw1004 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Can someone explain me why emojis are in Unicode at all?

      So that people can exchange written communication in a standard way, interoperable among vendors and software systems.

    7. Re:Why emojis/emoticons are in Unicode? by PPH · · Score: 2

      original RAZR flip phone

      Has icons to indicate secure/unsecure calls and data connections. Like when the local cops fire up their Stingray to listen in on calls.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
    8. Re:Why emojis/emoticons are in Unicode? by TWX · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Good design in the past meant that a designer used elements from a common pool. Icons, list bullets, etc that were images were not re-sourced every single time they were displayed across multiple pages, they were sourced the first time the page loaded and then cached and reused.

      Web designers need to go back to the low-bandwidth model. They need to be forced to using ISDN (128kb) speeds to make the framework of their pages efficient before they start filling-in the meat of the pages with content. If the framework without content takes significant time to load, even without a character-set full of garbage to pull from, then the designer needs to rethink the design.

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    9. Re:Why emojis/emoticons are in Unicode? by gnupun · · Score: 2

      ie, saving a document

      This is a good idea. We need emojis for file open, save, cut, copy, paste etc. (if not already present).

      is not the same as attempting to use iconography to convey a complex thought.

      There's nothing complex about a KitKat or McDonald's emoji logo. It's just a blatant ad right inside your content and therefore should be banned. Everything in the world is regulated to some extent, except ads. Are politicians getting paid to ignore the loud, annoying, irritating content they call ads that in actuality should be classified as audio/visual harassment?

  6. This by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is why I hate Emojis.

    Seriously, they were a bad idea to begin with. Then the politically correct nazis started getting upset about them. And now this.

    None of this should be in Unicode. If you want stupid little graphics in your text, then use stupid little graphics.

    1. Re:This by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You must be kidding. ASCII isn't even sufficient to write English, let alone the many other languages which genuinely benefit from being typeable.

  7. U+1F36B Chocolate Bar by tepples · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That's why U+1F36B is a generic chocolate bar rather than a HERSHEY'S® bar.

    1. Re:U+1F36B Chocolate Bar by OzPeter · · Score: 2

      That's why U+1F36B is a generic chocolate bar rather than a HERSHEY'S® bar.

      Given that Hershey's is a disgusting concoction that barely resembles real chocolate I am happy that the emoji for a chocolate bar is generic.

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    2. Re:U+1F36B Chocolate Bar by mwvdlee · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I spoke too soon.
      The proposed misappropriation of the word "break" is plain and pure evil.

      If "apple" were to be included in UTF-8, it should be a generic apple-shaped fruit symbol, not the computer brand trademark.

      Similarly, any "break" symbol, if adopted in UTF-8 in the proposed context of "a small time-out in between work", should be a generic symbol indicating such, not one indicating a specific brands' marketing campaign.

      Douglas Adams' described marketeers best: "A bunch of mindless jerks who'll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes".

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    3. Re:U+1F36B Chocolate Bar by AmiMoJo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      We should allow it as long as the Unicode Consortium makes a royalty-free penis emoji an acceptable alternate rendering. That way when you send someone one, you never know if you are sending them a KitKat or a dick pic.

      --
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    4. Re:U+1F36B Chocolate Bar by Sun · · Score: 2

      A friend who worked for a company that was sold to Apple told me about an email their HR sent out. It went something like this:
      Many people use the Apple logo in their email. Please note that people not using an Apple email program are unable to see it properly. For everyone else, this works fine.

      Shachar

  8. Re:U+1F926 by MachineShedFred · · Score: 4, Funny

    I prefer U+1F595

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  9. Would you prefer Chinese labels on buttons? by tepples · · Score: 2

    A bar and triangle seems to be pretty universally understood to mean "play/pause", for example.

    Not among certain members of my family. One keeps asking me "Why doesn't it just say 'Play'?" when she can't figure out which button to push. When I try to explain the reason behind internationalized pictographs by asking "It's made in China. Would you prefer that it said 'Play' in Chinese?", it still doesn't help.

  10. LIGHTSPEED BRIEFS by Thud457 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Leela: Didn't you have ads in the 21st century?"
    Fry: Well sure, but not in our dreams. Only on TV and radio, and in magazines, and movies, and at ball games... and on buses and milk cartons and t-shirts, and bananas and written on the sky. But not in dreams, no siree.

    --

    the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

  11. Re:unicode should NOT by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 2

    What's the Unicode for "tinfoil hat"?

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  12. go ahead! by lkcl · · Score: 2

    i have a nokia 3310, i don't mind what goes into unicode, because every SMS where people send me unicode smileys ends up as little rectangles.

  13. Re:Coren22's impersonation "APKolypse" by tepples · · Score: 2

    There's already an emoji for "You are all cows" (U+1F42E Cow Face). There's even one for "App appers app apps with apps" (U+1F4F2 Mobile Phone With Rightwards Arrow at Left). And there are plenty of faces for the integrated face system. But what would the hosts file emoji look like?