King promotes lobster emoji on NBC Nightly News

Courtesy / Office of Sen. Angus King U.S. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, is promoting the idea of adding a lobster emoji to the Unicode Consortium. He had the opportunity to make his pitch as part of a recent NBC Nightly News segment with correspondent Harry Smith.

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U.S. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, promoted the idea of adding a lobster emoji to the Unicode Consortium as part of an NBC Nightly News segment with correspondent Harry Smith.

The PenBay Pilot reported that the consortium is adding 56 emojis between now and January, and King earlier this year sent an email to Unicode, as well as press releases to local and national news outlets, advocating for a lobster emoji for 2018. Smith interviewed King Oct. 21 in Southport.

“If it helps sell some lobsters, I’m for it,” King said during the segment. Of King’s press release, NBC news producer Eric Salzman said, “This was different. It was hip and cool and a little tongue in cheek.”

King’s made a pitch for the lobster emoji in the September edition of his podcast, Inside Maine, in which he interviewed Matt Jacobson, executive director of the Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative, and Genevieve McDonald, a lobsterman from Stonington.

King and his guests discussed the importance of the lobster to Maine, including its impact on jobs and tourism, areas of potential growth, future challenges and their hopes for a lobster emoji.

"Anyone from Maine will tell you that lobster’s more than just a delicious meal: it’s a serious business,” King said in the podcast. “With more than 3,000 lobstermen, hundreds of processing facilities and countless lobster shacks to greet tourists looking for a dinner fresh from the trap, the lobster is a major economic engine for our coastal communities that deserves recognition.”