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Emojis are commonplace in mediated communication and function as substitutes for non-verbal behavior, emotions, concepts, and ideas. Previous research indicates that emojis serve as a visual element that draws attention to a message (Willoughby & Lui, 2018) and they can impact emotional responses toward the sender and the message (Das et al., 2019; Gesselman et al, 2019; Luangrath et al., 2017). This study examines emojis as visual rhetorical devices and the effect these visual communication elements have on a receiver's emotional response to a message. The findings indicate that visual artifacts (emojis like cake, pizza, a clock, etc.) serve a function, but they do not always elicit the senders intended emotional response. The implications and drawbacks of emojis as visual rhetoric are discussed. Additionally, this study investigates the use of emojis that represent artifacts and their impact on compliance. Emojis that elicited negative emotional responses to the message decreased compliance. However, positive emotional responses did increase compliance. The use of emojis as artifacts and their implications in peripheral processing are discussed as well as their function as visual rhetoric. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]