Following a poll of 3,500 16-35-year-olds from around the world, the "open umbrella with raindrops" icon, which can be found on smartphone devices, has been named as the unofficial safe sex emoji.
The poll, commissioned by Durex in October, found 75 per cent of people use emojis to discuss sex, with 90 per cent arguing that a safe sex emoji would help them to talk more openly about safe sex.
Durex global category director Volker Sydow said: "At Durex we believe that for this World AIDS Day identifying the unofficial safe sex emoji is an important step that helps to empower young people to put safe sex back on the agenda, supporting the fight to reduce the spread of HIV and AIDS.
"We are asking people to show their support for the cause by using this unofficial safe sex emoji and sharing the hashtag #CondomEmoji."
That campaign, like this year's, was devised by comms shop Premier, which is urging people to use the unofficial emoji to discuss safe sex. "We hope this year's campaign will make Unicode think twice and therefore approve an official emoji that represents safe sex," a spokesperson told PRWeek.
It’s #WorldAidsDay week, so let’s talk about safe sex and emojis. Join the #CondomEmoji conversation! pic.twitter.com/HynhujGjmk
— Durex Global (@durex) 28 November 2016
