WaterAid’s new #GiveAShit app offers a way to take action on World Toilet Day, a UN-recognized day aimed at breaking the silence around the global sanitation crisis. In communities around the world, lack of proper sanitation affects health, education, dignity, the environment and economic opportunity—especially for women and girls.
App users can create their own customized poop emoji by choosing from dozens of different shapes, colors, eyes, mouths, hairstyles, and accessories. The more you share your poop emojis with your friends and social networks, the more additional features become ‘unlocked’. Beyond sharing over social networks, the emojis can be added to your phone’s keyboard to text to friends.
Your custom poop can also be outfitted with accessories related to global sanitation, such as a shiny new toilet, a roll of toilet paper, a glass of clean drinking water, or an “I donated” pin. The app also allows users to make a $10 donation to the cause simply by sending a text.
“The poop emoji is one of the most popular emoticons on the market today, inspiring everything from pillows and wearable costumes, to coffee mugs, stress balls and endless selfies. But for millions of people around the world, poop is no laughing matter,” said WaterAid America CEO Sarina Prabasi.
“The fact that half a million children under the age of five die each year from diarrheal diseases that could be prevented with a clean toilet and good hygiene is not something that’s easy to talk about. But decent toilets and good hygiene are a must if we want to break the cycle of poverty. This World Toilet Day, we invite everyone to take a stand by sharing your personalized poop emoji, and showing the world that you #GiveAShit about the sanitation crisis.”
A wide range of entertainers, activists, YouTube celebrities and Vine stars will join WaterAid in recognizing World Toilet Day by sharing their personalized poop emojis. The campaign is being produced by creator publishing agency The Pub, with support from Joystick Interactive and Collab LLC.
