GBK offers free bacon and avocado burgers to celebrate new emoji symbols

Proving that restaurants can create new menu dishes based on just about anything, GBK is giving away the burger for free on Tuesday 21 June, via photo sharing network Instagram, once the new emoji symbols will have appeared on people’s phones.

Emojis are small, colourful symbols used in texting and other phone-based typing – such as on social media updates ‒ issued by the Unicode company, which maintains the selection via a downloadable keyboard app on smartphones. Emojis were originally designed to convey simple emotions such as smiling, laughing, or sadness, but now there are hundreds of symbols for everything from sleeping to thinking to food, travel, flags, clothes, gestures, animals, and many more. There are regular updates.

Customers hoping for a free burger should go to Instagram, and follow the GBK account @gbkburgers. They should then “regram” (re-post) the photo of the avocado bacon burger posted by GBK, using the caption #FreeAvoBacon and the new emojis.

They can then go to their nearest GBK – everywhere except the site at the London O2 ‒, show the post, and receive their free burger.

The new emoji update – which also includes 70 other new symbols, including a croissant, a kiwi fruit, a baguette, a cucumber, a clown face, and a handshake sign ‒ was first confirmed on 6 June. Some commentators have even considered emoji as a growing language, on a par with ancient hieroglyphics.

GBK was first founded in 2001 by three New Zealanders who wanted to create gourmet burgers they had enjoyed back home. It now operates over 70 sites cross the UK, and claims to only use 100% prime beef reared on independent farms across South West England. In January this year it hit controversy after releasing a series of adverts that some felt appeared to mock vegetarians and vegans, and the group eventually pulled all but two of its posters from circulation in response.