New iOS 9.1 Eye Emoji is Part of An Anti-Bullying Campaign

[Maura]

MacRumors reports that Apple is supporting a new anti-bullying campaign by including a special eye emoji in iOS 9.1 and OS X 10.11.1. The campaign, which has just been launched by the Ad Council, is called “I Am A Witness,” and has been devised to encourage teenagers to step in when they see someone being bullied. The new emoji of an eye inside a speech bubble that Apple has included in iOS 9.1 is meant to be a way to show someone who is being bullied that you support them.

The emoji was designed by Angie Elko and Patrick Knowlton from Goodby, Silverstein & Partners ad agency, who made the approach to Apple to include the symbol as an emoji on the Apple keyboard.

“When we first asked about bringing this emoji to the official Apple keyboard, they told us it would take at least a year or two to get it through and approved under Unicode,” says Goodby’s art director Hanna Wittmark. She added that Apple was able to fast track the inclusion of the emoji by combining two current emoji, namely the eye emoji and the left speech bubble emoji.

Adobe, Facebook, Google, YouTube, and Twitter are also all supporting the campaign with their own customised content.

Source: Apple Supports Anti-Bullying Campaign With New iOS 9.1 Emoji Symbol