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Airports think airplane arrival emoji looks like it's crashing

Apple's new woozy/drunk face emoji, redhead emoji and lobster emoji all cause controversy or delight.

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, generational studies. Credentials
  • Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
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Gael Cooper
2 min read

More than 70 new emoji were delivered this week, thanks to  Apple . But the news sparked a debate about an existing emoji that needs to straighten up and fly right.

The airplane arrival emoji has been around since 2014 -- a cute cartoony airplane, nose angled down, as if for landing. Or ... crashing? The angled nose might not be a big deal to most people, but it is to numerous large airports who decided to take the debate to new heights this week.

"On behalf of #AirportTwitter and pilots everywhere, we'd like to kindly request a re-angling," the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport tweeted this week.

And DFW wasn't alone. Its airport brethren joined the chorus.

Craig Civale, the senior manager overseeing social media at Dallas-Fort Worth's airport, told CBS News the tweet was meant "tongue in cheek." (Disclosure:  CBS is parent company of CNET.)

The plane emoji wasn't the only one, new or old, that's caused controversy. One of the new emoji is called Woozy Face, or "Face With Uneven Eyes and Wavy Mouth," but social media users quickly dubbed it Drunk Face.

Redheads were happy to be recognized with a redheaded emoji, until they realized there's just one character with red hair, as opposed to the other hair color choices, which can be used on many different faces.

"COME ON! We waited literally years for you to give us a redhead emoji and when you finally did, you didn't add it to the other emoticons," tweeted Hannah Jones.

And hey, at least there's one company that got a little ecstatic about the new lobster emoji. It's like Christmas, your birthday, and the Super Bowl rolled into one over at chain restaurant Red Lobster.

"Join us in welcoming the brand NEW #LobsterEmoji," the chain tweeted in one of many tweets about the new emoji. "Share your best lobster pic and show off that new emoji."

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