Jeep is celebrating its newfound status as an emoji-free automaker after Apple booted the boxy blue car that popped up when iPhone users typed the brand’s name in a message. The company lightheartedly described the icon as an impostor.
The Jeep emoji that disappeared with the latest version of iOS looked nothing like the crossovers and SUVs that populate the company’s lineup of models. If you ask us, it resembles a tiny hatchback that belongs in a crowded European city, not a rugged, thoroughbred SUV you’d want to drive up the Rubicon Trail. Jeep agreed; it pointed out the emoji is not trail-rated, which is a term it reserves for its most off-road-capable models.
“So glad Apple agrees and removed our name in the latest iOS update,” Jeep wrote on its official Twitter page. It launched a social media campaign anchored to the #ThisIsNotJeep campaign to get the word out. The firm didn’t formally ask Apple to get rid of the emoji, according to Ad Age, but it’s genuinely happy to no longer be associated with the cartoon-esque, hatchback-like thing.
“The Jeep brand is opposed to this emoji being connected with its name, and we’re happy the association has been removed from the latest iOS update,” wrote Oliver Francois, the chief marketing officer for Jeep parent company Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), in a statement. He added the #ThisIsNotJeep campaign gives the brand the opportunity to remind the world that an SUV not wearing a Jeep emblem can’t pass itself off as one of its vehicles, which might have been a thinly-veiled attack on the Mahindra Roxor, an off-roader shaped suspiciously like a vintage CJ.
Jeep was the only automaker whose name was associated with an emoji. You won’t see a Chiron if you type Bugatti into a message, and writing Dodge won’t summon the mighty Challenger Demon. That’s because, decades ago, the word jeep became a generic term that denoted any and all off-roaders, much like a Band-Aid isn’t always made by the namesake brand. The FJ-generation Toyota Land Cruiser was often referred to as a Toyota Jeep, for example.
We hope the company will try to get a proper, Wrangler-shaped emoji added to a future version of iOS. There’s an emoji for everything. We use them to tell our friends that we’re going camping, to tell our significant other what’s for dinner, and to tell our families which country we’re traveling to. There ought to be a way to announce we’re about to hit the trail. The process of getting an emoji approved is long but fairly straightforward; just ask Ford
