The petition is being held on change.org and was started by a website called Ginger Parrot, according to the Independent. Emma Kelly of Ginger Parrot told BBC Radio Scotland that despite gingers representing only 2 percent of the world’s population they comprise over 13 percent of Scotland, saying: “Redheads go through their lives being teased quite a lot and sometimes worse, I’m not saying Apple has anything against redheads, but I was surprised when redheads weren’t included in the recent emoji update.”
Apple’s recent iOS 8.3 update added over 300 new emoji to the mobile operating system bringing new ethical, racial and sexual diversity. The colour of many faces can even be customised by the user but people have noticed that gingers were left out.
Ginger Parrot now intends to directly approach Apple to ask for the emoji to be added. Ms Kelly said there are actually around 138 million people worldwide that Apple has overlooked by not including an emoji to represent gingers.
Emoji are a popular method to express emotion and feeling in text messaging on mobile platforms, especially with young people. They have been adopted by all major platforms and usually work across devices.
The issue of diversity in the representation of people has been topical for some time though. Until recently, most companies did not include alternative versions of emoji to represent diversity but this is now much more common after widely-supported petitions to ensure that everybody feels supported by the offered emoji.
Ginger Parrot’s campaign has gained traction on social media with over 12,000 signatories. The company hopes that this will be enough to convince Apple that gingers are significant enough to be included in iOS. It asks “If you say you’re going to diversify, why not add a few red-haired emoji in the mix?”
