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| Emojis come to be iconic when they establish themselves quickly and without much fanfare. This particular shape, with eyes and a smile, may have originally been created to represent chocolate ice cream, but was doomed from the start for many obvious reasons. Not the least of which is found in the coarseness of Social Media communications posturing. This arena has always been the Wild West. Image Credit: Emojipedia via Business Insider (2015) |
YES! It was a peg wall full of hang tag packaging Pile Of Poo 3-D emojis marked as FILLABLE EGGS in an assortment of Easter Egg colors (thank the stars none were brown).
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| Banner labeling marked as "Fillable Eggs" just under a pair of bunny ears to the left side of the label. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2018) |
On a recent trip to a local 99 Cents Only Stores, the seasonal aisles, which were previously filled with the red and green colors of the Christmas season, sported the rich red of Valentines Day cards and decorations as well the beginnings of the muted pinks, blues, purples, greens and yellows of Easter.
Once confronted with these displays one is drawn to the typical fare such as cards, centerpieces, and candy gift enclosures of the season ... like eggs, fillable eggs.
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| Typical plastic eggs folks use to hide candy and gifts in during Easter. Image Credit: Busy Body Kids |
Being early into the Easter season, heck, Fat Tuesday hasn't even taken place, the selection was not as robust as one might anticipate.
One hang tag packaging section was quite attention getting, in that, it featured something that was, at once, current in shape, but just a bit odd. This is not an everyday egg!
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| Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2018) |
Lest one think this might be inappropriate messaging for outside of the common Social Media platforms where we all may be exposed to this kind of light-hearted coarseness, consider that Apple Corporation has recently been airing a commercial in heavy rotation using a song by SOFI TUKKER titled Best Friend (click link) that features, momentarily, this same Pile Of Poo emoji.
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| Apple's Pile Of Poo emoji as it appears in Apple's commercial introducing the new iPhone X to the world. Image Credit: Apple Corporation via YouTube (2017) |
One can almost imagine the discussions in the product planning boardrooms ... in China. Can anyone sense the disconnect here?
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| A glasses festooned face with a tooth style grin. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2018) |
Then now, after the decision had been made to develop a product to be sold during the Easter celebration season in the West, the order goes down to the modeling department to create a mold that would be the right size, to be split in half, so that a parent, grandparent, friend would be able to insert an inclusion, a candy or other small object, for gifting purposes.
What goes on in the mind of a person with the engineering degree/training and crafts background to create such a thing so it would become ... a THING?
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| A laughing expression with drool coming out of one side. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2018) |
Meeting after meeting, where the tests prove that this is now a product, until the next step where the other decisions have been made on differentiation, such as color(s), screened graphic faces, packaging considerations are applied.
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| A surprise "Oh!" expression. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2018) |
Small groups of graphic designers come up with an assortment of face configurations. Each by each are approved and moved forward into the production process.
Faces include a surprise "Oh!" expression, a laughing expression with drool coming out of one side, a glasses festooned face with a tooth style grin similar to a Bugs Bunny (apologies to Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Mel Blanc) graphic, each coming to being approved and moved forward.
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| A squinty eyed, raspberry tongue expression. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2018) |
Some of these screened faces are quite sophisticated requiring more than just one pass due to color and other considerations. Each face being applied, some with color first then the final pass of black.
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| A sad, "Woe is me!" style expression. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2018) |
Each face having to go through a final inspection to make sure the registration of the application met minimum standards of graphic representation. Does the face impart the emotion it was originally designed to achieve?
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| A happy smile-faced wink expression. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2018) |
Through all of the process of preparing the product for sale and ... profit. The culture continues to shape the environment socially and politically.
Here in America, we have been confronted just this past week with an account of communication and expression found in our political discourse that boiled down to just one word ... s***hole. This word, similar in meaning to fecal-cavity, was picked up and used during the course of one full day of broadcasting by a cable news service about 195 times.
The term was used to describe countries that clearly operated politically and culturally with a complete lack of standards in cleanliness, building codes and aspiration to become operating at a higher level of standard through individual, family, and political governance conviction.
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| A bookworm-style pile of poo in shock expression. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2018) |
This may be a clue how this product, which was designed, developed, and finally produced for sale to a needy public, ended up at a close-out lots merchandising king, the 99 Cent Only retail store chain.
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| A Mmmmm, yum, yum expression with tongue. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2018) |
All we, at Maxine, can surmise, with the production and sale of this rather odd display, once we bring these Pile Of Poo emoji memes home, fill them with treats to celebrate Easter, when given out and used as intended - does this act make us participants in a cultural rite-of-spring ... Turd-World Country?
Jus' askin'!
TAGS: Pile Of Poo, Emoji, Easter Egg, Easter, Egg, Rite-Of-Spring, SOFI TUKKER, Apple, iPhone X, Emojipedia, China, Shithole, 99 Cents Only Stores, MAXINE
