Adidas use of emoji to handle hate is positively biblical
When an Adidas Valentine鈥檚 Day ad featuring a same sex couple drew fire online, the company chose to walk a biblical parallel by responding with a positive emoji rather than engage in a war of ugly words.
While it may not have been directly drawn from听Proverbs 15:1,听鈥淎 gentle answer turns away wrath,听but a harsh word stirs up anger,鈥澨齮he affirmation resonated with the online community.
Emojis are tiny cartoons that evolved from emoticons into pictorial representations now used as a digital shorthand.
The ad, an image of two women facing each other with one on tiptoe as if to kiss a taller partner, was posted on the Adidas听听account with a caption taken from a lyric in the Beatles' classic song,听:听鈥淭he love you take is equal to the love you make.鈥�
It drew an immediate and hostile response from some on Instagram.
A user named听听responded on the post, 鈥淟ost so much respect for you adidas. Love is only between man and woman.鈥�
To which the company responded with both a waving hand and lipstick kiss emoji. The company continued to blow emoji kisses at detractors, thus starting a landslide of positive emoji use from its supporters.
Users on Twitter took up the standard as well.
滨苍听听performed by mobile keyboard apps company听听last April, more than a billion emoji used by speakers of 16 languages around the world between October 2014 and January 2015 were analyzed from both Android and iOS devices.
Some 41.5 billion messages and 6 billion emoticons or stickers are sent around the world every day on mobile messaging apps. Among the more than 800 emoji, happy faces are still the most common emoji, accounting for nearly half of all emoji usage, according Swyftkey.听听of all Instagram posts contain at least one emoji.
Elizabeth Owen, director of communications for听,听an LGBTQ family support organization, says in an interview, 鈥淚t only took one small snapshot to share the love and it only take one small emoji to keep it going.鈥�
On a personal level, not as a spokesperson, Ms. Owen adds, 鈥淎s a fan, I loved it.鈥�
鈥淎s someone who moderates in social media space, for me, that would be an opportunity for a discussion, so I would be less likely to use an emoji to respond and shut it down,鈥� Owen says. 鈥淲e always like to keep the door open to dialogue. But we鈥檙e not a sneaker company. I think their response of the emoji is lovely but for PFLAG that鈥檚 a point of engagement.鈥�
president Sylvain Bruni writes in an email statement, 鈥淏oston Pride applauds Adidas for this clever response which provides pride and visibility for the LGBT community.鈥�
鈥淲e also applaud Adidas for including a 鈥榗oming-out clause鈥� in its athlete contracts, whereby they state that any athlete who comes out as LGBT will not lose their contract with Adidas,鈥� Mr Bruni adds. 鈥淓ngaging trolls and haters online doesn't bring about change, so Adidas鈥� move to use emojis was an appropriate response to show their听support of the community and spread the simple message that they celebrate all love.鈥�
Bruni adds, 鈥淪ymbols and emojis are powerful and can convey strong messages in a single graphic, and in this instance, it worked well.鈥�
Josh Rivedal,听founder of , an online听positive self-image effort,听writes in an e-mail that "shutting the haters down via the use of an emoji鈥攊t was a perfect response.""Winning a war of words is virtually impossible via social media. Everyone has an opinion, which can be difficult to change, especially behind a keyboard," Mr. Rivedal adds. "Using a positive emoji is similar to a face-to-face response where you smile and agree to disagree."听
鈥淓mojis are the fastest form of communications. The image triggers your brain to register a connect to past memories that the image reminds you of 鈥� thus people听experience听a deeper connection to the image,鈥� says public relations expert听听in an interview. 鈥淭his is PR 101. In media training, the first thing you learn is how to respond to negativity. You handle it with positivity and redirect the conversation with a new element, which is exactly what Adidas did. Plus, they made us smile which was actually brilliant.鈥�
Ms. Wagner says. 鈥淓mojis are the fastest form of communications for reaching millennials. Brilliantly, even the听听has his own positive emoji. For that matter, so does听听[], although hers also run toward her own brand interests as well.鈥�
Wagner concludes, 鈥淚f the reach of emoji is broad enough to encompass the Pope and Kim Kardashian, both of whom have been dealing with haters a lot longer than Adidas, it鈥檚 a strategy that is evolving because it works.鈥�
