They’re small, they’re pixelated, and they might cost your brand more than you think.
When computer scientist Scott Fahlman first suggested using 🙂 or 🙁 to help clarify message meaning in 1982, we were well on our way to living in a material emoji world. But where intent for your average petite pictogram feels obvious to the sender—it won’t always be perceived in the same spirit by the recipient.
That complexity complicates daily communication for a company. Consider 👍 (thumbs‑up) or 🙂 (smiley face). They’re two non-threatening symbols you’d hardly think twice about, right? But recent research asks us to think again. Gen Z members see these small signs as suggestive, and a 2024 Brands2Life survey found 25% of consumers might boycott a brand over its insensitive emoji employment.
A few red-flag examples:
- 👍 (Thumbs up) = OK to some, passive-aggressive to others.
- 🙂 (Smiley) = Friendly? Gen Z sees it as low-key shady.
- 💀 (Skull) = Not “morbid” anymore—it’s the new way of saying “I’m dead laughing.”
While we have adults from different generations and cultural backgrounds interpreting emojis in drastically different ways—with consequences ranging from relational to reputational—the law is in the mix as well. Legal scholar Eric Goldman noted that there were more than 1,000 U.S. court cases referencing emojis, indicating a 17% increase over the prior year. And regulators have warned that 👍, 😉 , or 🚀 can be interpreted as investment approval as well.
Emojis are more than just casual communications curiosities—they’re potential public relations pitfalls. We well know a misunderstood message can derail communication, damage culture, or even detonate conflict, and the innocent-seeming emoji has become message and messenger.
Let’s check out a few examples.
1. Get Good with Generational and Gender Gaps
A basic rule of effective communications (but it always bears repeating) is to know your audience. This year, Gen Zers have been calling out 🙂 as a covert comment that’s potentially passive aggressive. While brands continue to use it, particularly in customer service communications, they’re being called out as tone-deaf. And this erodes trust.
Age, gender, and culture all influence interpretation. And even though emojis are standardized by Unicode, the same image can read cheerful to one person and suspicious to another depending on their platform.
Chevy once issued a press release launching a new car entirely in emojis. It was meant to be clever. It was unreadable.
And Marketing Scoop shared a conversation with an HR rep:
“Just this week we had an incident where a long-tenured employee emailed a 👴 emoji to a much younger supervisor…it was taken as ageist by the supervisor and conflict ensued. Whenever there are generational divides, emoji issues seem to crop up.”
So, of course there’s nuance. While impossible to know how every single individual will interpret something, the point is to think through visuals in communication as much as you would with words.
2. Examine How Emoji Engagement Might Look Externally
Hillary Clinton’s campaign team tweeted a key question during her presidential bid—she asked followers to use three emojis to summarize student loan debt. This move was widely perceived as insensitive, with one X user responding:
“Let’s not diminish the thousands upon thousands we’re paying back for dozens of years by making our opinions emojis.”
Vice Media delivered news of layoffs via livestream, and employees flooded the feed with the 👎emoji. CEO Bruce Dixon abruptly ended the session, and critical clips went viral. Here we have multiple points of failure—the chosen format to deliver sensitive news allowed for emojis, and when the emojis weren’t positive, the CEO’s reaction made it worse.
And I’ve referenced this one in a previous PR fail, but the emoji-ness of it offers opportunity for extra examination. The Signal chat debacle involved inappropriate use of emojis like 👊, 🙏, and 🔥 when used to react to a proposed bombing. That’s not clever. That’s reputation damage.
The upshot? If the message might escape the confines of your company or conversation (and we know they all can), or you’re planning an external campaign, really think through emoji appropriateness in the effort.
3. Emojis Are Now Legal Evidence 💼
Emojis are living it up as literal evidence in legal proceedings. A Canadian court ruled that a thumbs-up emoji in a text message was as good as a signature, costing a farmer $61,000 in a grain supply dispute. And though no U.S. court has ruled (yet) that an emoji can create a binding contract, several U.S. law firms and analysts are treating the Canadian case as a cautionary benchmark in related commentary. As mentioned above, regulators including FINRA and SEC are paying close attention as well.
On that very note, there’s the legal battle over the interpretation of a moon emoji used by Bed Bath & Beyond investor Ryan Cohen. Responding to a CNBC story on social that predicted the company’s share price would drop, Cohen reposted the CNBC story with an emoji of a smiling moon. This led to other investors interpreting the moon as Cohen signaling Bed Bath & Beyond stock was heading “to the moon.” At best, this was a communications mistake—at worst, securities fraud.
So… What Now?
👉 Rethink your tone: Emojis are visual shorthand for emotion and intent. If it’s high stakes, skip the shorthand.
👉 Train your teams: Especially leaders. Communication strategy should include digital body language.
👉 Review your policies: If emojis aren’t addressed in your employee handbook, it’s time.
👉 Default to clarity: When in doubt, say it with words. Clear beats clever.
Bottom line? Emojis aren’t harmless. They’re little messages with big consequences. Treat them like any other part of your brand voice—with intention, context, and care.
Want us to run an emoji audit on your team communications? Hit reply or send us your most confusing emoji moment. We’ll feature a few in a future webinar.
See you at the next PR fail ! 💌💪
Aaron Blank
President and CEO
Fearey