Late last week, I had the pleasure of attending Pepsi’s launch party for its 2-day interactive exhibit Love: From Cave to Keyboard, imagined by Pepsi.  The exhibit celebrated World Emoji Day and the brand’s global #PepsiMoji campaign. It examines and chronicles the history of non-verbal communication from hieroglyphics to today’s emojis. I enjoyed watching the emoji installation colorfully change from the happy emoji , to the kiss emoji,  to other fun emojis. I also loved the sign language skit performed by cast members from the Tony-nominated production of Spring Awakening. The Betty Boop illustrations also fascinated me,  showing Betty with her own PepsiMoji design and layered augmented reality.

We were all further entertained with a silent film, and music.  We had a chance to hear Maggie Gyllenhaal narrate a silent film about the great moments in silent film that conveyed love. We also heard an exclusive  DJ set by Soul / R&B duo LION BABE. You could definitely feel the emotions in the room with everyone dancing to the lively beats.  Jillian Harvey, one half of the duo, even sang and rapped along to some of the songs that ranged from 90’s rap to today’s hits. It was quite an immersive experience.

The last engaging experience at the event featured “Heart,” an original 3-D sculpture by Brooklyn-based artist Shinji Murakami, that led into a PepsiMoji interaction. This experience had facial recognition technology that matched your expressions with a PepsiMoji design for social sharing. It was fun pretending that we were actual kiss emojis!

I’m impressed with Pepsi’s focus on the emoji. It’s such a modern icon that we sometimes dismiss as silly and funny, but it really can convey so much more. Pepsi even released a PepsiMoji Keyboard App that has over 1000 proprietary designs.

Thanks Pepsi for letting me experience this adventure. I’m curious to see how the emoji will evolve in the future and how Pepsi will celebrate it!

Sign Language skit

Lion’s Babe