Butterball petitions for roasted turkey emoji

Could you soon get a text message that includes a Thanksgiving turkey emoji?

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Butterball is proposing to Unicode that a roasted turkey emoji be created, producing a video to promote its cause and starting an online petition. | Screenshot from YouTube.
Butterball is proposing to Unicode that a roasted turkey emoji be created, producing a video to promote its cause and starting an online petition. | Screenshot from YouTube.

Could you soon get a text message that includes a Thanksgiving turkey emoji?

Butterball hopes that you can.

The largest turkey company in the United States has started a push for the emoji, producing a video featuring Turkey Talk-Line personnel explaining why such an emoji is in order. The company also has started an online petition on change.org, telling Unicode, the non-profit organization that oversees the coding standards for texting and emojis, that “it’s about time” a roasted turkey emoji is available.

The video can be viewed on YouTube.

“Every other major holiday has at least one emoji,” the petition reads. “There’s fireworks, champagne, and noise-makers for New Year’s Eve; cupid hearts for Valentine’s Day, ghosts and jack-o-lanterns for Halloween; and so much more.”

While Butterball acknowledges that there already is a turkey emoji, the colorful and full-feathered turkey emoji does not truly capture the Thanksgiving turkey spirit.

“If any Thanksgiving symbol is going to become an emoji, it has to be that iconic symbol of the holiday – a perfectly roasted turkey,” the petition read.

As of 10 a.m. September 27, the online petition for the turkey emoji had 1,332 signatures.

Butterball, according to the WATTAgNet Top Poultry Companies Database, is the largest turkey producer in the United States. In 2016, the company slaughtered an estimated 1.38 billion pounds of live turkeys, which was a 1 percent increase when compared to the previous year. 

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