What's wrong with Google's burger emoji?

A Tweet about the design of Google's burger emoji has sparked an intense online discussion about how the foodstuff should look, and prompted Google CEO Sundar Pichai to say he would 'drop everything' to fix it. Seriously.

If you've ever doubted the power of social media, the recent development surrounding Google's burger emoji (that's a phrase we never thought we'd have to type) will show you how impactful it can be.

Following a viral Tweet from author and media analyst Thomas Baekdal, which complained about the placement of the cheese in Google's burger emoji, the CEO of the world's leading technology company has vowed to put the emoji's design above everything else. If that's not power we don't know what is.

See more

The Tweet might appear pretty innocent on the surface. After all, have you ever seen a burger that places the cheese underneath the meat? Of course not. That would be madness. Such a burger could only exist in a world gone topsy-turvy. Yet, inexplicably, there it is.

This burger bizarreness could explain why, at the time of writing, the Tweet has gained nearly 40,000 retweets and nearly 2,000 comments. Clearly this is an important issue that a lot of people feel strongly about.

And because people who are interested in emojis appear to be anything if not thorough, the full list of burger emojis has been dredged up from emojipedia like a political scandal for us all to gawp at and contemplate.

How did we, as society, let this happen?

One person clearly disturbed by this flagrant disregard for burger etiquette was Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who replied to the public outcry with this placating Tweet:

See more

This isn't the only emoji to be publicly shamed, though.

Google's pint of beer emoji has been dragged through the mud like an accessory to murder thanks to its gravity-defying head of foam, which appears to hover above the alcoholic good stuff like a tipsy cloud.

See more

Perhaps they need a new illustrator, some icon design tips, or at least some decent reference images. 

There's no word yet on whether or not Google has fixed the placement of cheese on its burger emoji. But with the top technological minds in the world working on it, surely it won't take long to fix?

Related articles:

Thank you for reading 5 articles this month* Join now for unlimited access

Enjoy your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1

*Read 5 free articles per month without a subscription

Join now for unlimited access

Try first month for just £1 / $1 / €1

Dom Carter

Dom Carter is a freelance writer who specialises in art and design. Formerly a staff writer for Creative Bloq, his work has also appeared on Creative Boom and in the pages of ImagineFX, Computer Arts, 3D World, and .net. He has been a D&AD New Blood judge, and has a particular interest in picture books.