Taco Bell Pleads: 'America Wants a Taco Emoji. America Needs a Taco Emoji.'The popular Tex-Mex chain is petitioning for a taco emoji on Change.org.

ByKim Lachance Shandrow

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

ICYMI, Taco Bell wants you to think outside of the bun, even when you text -- in the form of an appetizing taco emoji, of course.

The fast-food Tex-Mex chain is serious enough about its fight for a taco-shaped electronic ideogram that it's taking to the popular petition websiteChange.orgto make it happen IRL. Or so the Irvine-based subsidiary ofYum! Brandshopes. And so do the 22,706 people who signed the company's cheekyemoji petitionso far. The goal is 25,000 signatures in all.

Related:For the First Time, an Emoji Has Been Named the Most Popular Word of the Year

The four-paragraph publicity stunt -- er, campaign -- is titled "The Taco Emoji Needs to Happen." Clearly Taco Bell did its due diligence because its appeal, launched on Nov. 18, is appropriately addressed to theUnicode Consortium, the official gatekeepers of the representation of text in basically all software products.

Last June, Unicodeadded some 250 new emojisto an existing collectanea of approximately 850, including, of all things, the Vulcan salute ("Raised Hand With Part Between Middle And Ring Fingers"), "Man In Business Suit Levitating" and "Envelope With Lightning." So much crazy, but no taste bud-tempting taco action. Not yet, even if, per Taco Bell, "America wants a Taco emoji," and "America needs a taco emoji." Obviously.

Related:KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell Want Even More Millennial Customers in 2015

在它请愿书,Taco Bellpoints out that, last November,Unicode announcedthat it's eyeing 37 more new emoji pictographs for release later this year. Among the candidates -- you guessed it -- is a super cute taco pictograph, of the hard shell variety, topped with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes and sour cream. Hungry yet? That's the point.

"The taco emoji is a potential candidate for the release," reads Taco Bell's plea, "but we need your help convincing them [the Unicode powers that be] THE TACO EMOJI NEEDS TO HAPPEN." Yes, all caps. It'sthatimportant. So, instead of, say, petitioning toend childhood obesity, the breakfast Waffle Taco-maker asks, "Why do pizza and hamburger lovers get an emoji but taco lovers don't?" It's so unfair. Stop the madness and sign the petition already.

Related:The Real Reason Taco Bell Made the Waffle Taco

Wavy Line
Kim Lachance Shandrow

Former West Coast Editor

Kim Lachance Shandrow is the former West Coast editor at Entrepreneur.com. Previously, she was a commerce columnist atLos Angeles CityBeat,a news producer at MSNBC and KNBC in Los Angeles and a frequent contributor to theLos Angeles Times. She has also written forGovernment Technologymagazine,LA Yogamagazine, theLowell Sun报纸,HealthCentral.com,心理学hCentral.com and the former U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. C. Everett Coop. Follow her on Twitter at@Lashandrow. You can also follow her on Facebookhere.

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