Earlier this year, Apple reached for its well-blown PR trumpet, sounded a resounding blast and set about thumping itself heartily on the back. The cause? A new range of racially diverse icons.
"Well done us!" came the cry. "You thought we were all about making hardware that died after two years? Not so. Behold our sensitivity, our tender compassion, as we react to the needs of the world's virtual messengers."
About bloody time, more like. Because Apple has always had the option to make racially diverse emoji - and they've still managed to leave off one under-represented group.
The library of visual icons is handled by Unicode Consortium - the group who set the regulations for the code that corresponds to every smiley face we punch into our smartphones. Unicode presents messaging vendors a rough outline of each character in black and white, allowing groups to make their own tweaks to how the emoji will function in their system, including adjusting the colour schemes.
Apple, along with many other messaging services, had been dragging its feet over diversifying its range of emoji. The recent changes are welcome - and yet they've still managed to ignore the world's flame headed legions: the gingers.
Related: You've Been Using Emoji All Wrong
This has led to one redhead interest website Ginger Parrot taking action. Their campaign to get a ginger emoji added to Apple's line up has amassed over 10,000 signatures for its virtual petition.
"Natural redheads may be rare at less than 2 percent of the world's population," it reads, "but that is 138,000,000 iPhones waiting to happen."
"Our next aim is to approach Apple with our list of signatures," Emma Kelly of Ginger Parrot told Digital Spy. "We've heard that a lot of new emojis will be added if popular demand dictates it, so this is something we hope our petition can collate: the need for redheads to be represented on Apple products."
Should you wish to lend your support to the campaign, head here to sign the petition. You can even show your redhead love by buying a ginger emoji pin for £4.
Here's to total emoji equality.
(Images: Ginger Parrot)
[Via: Digital Spy]
