Smileys

I often use some of these ones in my posts on SquidU.

The very earliest known examples of the graphic are attributed to Harvey Ball, who devised the face in 1963 for a Worcester, Massachusetts, USA-based insurance firm, State Mutual Life Assurance.

In 1963, State Mutual Life Assurance Company in Worcester faced a problem. The Worcester-based firm had purchased Guarantee Mutual Company of Ohio the previous year to work with Worcester Mutual Fire Insurance Company, a State Mutual subsidiary.

Low employee morale in the merged companies prompted State Mutual Vice President John Adam, Jr. to suggest a "friendship campaign." He asked Joy Young, Assistant Director of Sales and Marketing, to develop something.

Young turned to Worcester freelance artist Harvey Ball, requesting he create a little smile to be used on buttons, desk cards and posters. Ball drew a smile but, not satisfied with the result; he added two eyes, making a smiley face. The whole drawing, he recalled later, took ten minutes. He was paid $240 for the entire campaign, and never received any further profit from his smiley face design.

Ball never attempted to use, promote or trademark the image; it fell into the public domain in the United States before that could be accomplished. As a result, Ball never made any profit for the iconic image he allegedly created beyond his initial $45 fee.

Today, State Mutual is Allmerica Financial, and Worcester Mutual Fire Insurance is no longer a subsidiary of State Mutual. Now called Worcester Insurance Company, it still uses the smiley face on its promotional material.

The smiley face attained a life of its own well beyond the company's walls. Harvey Ball's design sparked a fad that swept the nation in the early 1970s. By 1971, smiley face was the hottest selling image in the country: an estimated fifty million smiley buttons alone had been sold, and the image appeared on countless other products as well.

Eventually, smiley's popularity began to wane, and by the mid-1970s the fad was over. The image never entirely disappeared though, and began to make a significant comeback in the late 1980s, with the resurgence of sixties-and seventies-inspired symbols, fashions, and music. Smiley's popularity continues today, its appeal both universal and enduring.

David Stern of David Stern Inc., a Seattle-based advertising agency also claimed to have invented the smiley. Stern reportedly developed his version in 1967 as part of an ad campaign for Washington Mutual, but says he did not think to trademark it.
Source

And this one is just so cute!

Harvey Ross Ball (10 July 1921 - 12 April 2001) founded the World Smile Corporation, which licenses smiley's and organizes World Smile Day on the first Friday in October. Although Harvey died in 2001, World Smile Day continues to raise money for the Harvey Ball World Smile Foundation, a non-profit charitable trust which supports children's causes.

World Smile Day is held on the first Friday of October each year and is a day dedicated to "good cheer and good works." The catch phrase for the day is "Do an act of kindness-help one person smile."

The U.S. Postal Service unveiled the first smiley face postage stamp in Worcester on WSD (World Smile Day) 1999. World Smile Day was started in 1999 by Harvey Ball. The WSD (World Smile Day) committee includes members from the Worcester Historical Museum, the City of Worcester, the Office of Congressman Jim McGovern and the Harvey Ball World Smile Foundation.

This little guy is my favorite

What's more fun than a smiley? A group of smileys of course! LOL

Give a friend a hug....



.... or how about a group hug?

And my smiley weatherman

....... especially for Ms. Noodles! LOL

I think we need a few more but which ones?

Ok, I have an idea...

The film Forrest Gump (Robert Zemeckis, 1994) comically featured the smiley being "invented" when the main character wipes his mud-covered face off with a yellow t-shirt, and says "Have a nice day", inspiring a struggling businessman with the makeshift design. This scene is not in the original book.

The film Fight Club (David Fincher, 1999) has a brief "smiley bombing" scene on the side of an office building. A similar face previously appeared in the Fight Club novel.

In Timescape, an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Captain Jean-Luc Picard drew a smiley face in the cloud created by a warp core breach in progress that was frozen in time and laughed hysterically for a moment before becoming extremely panicked, all as a result of "temporal narcosis".

In the 1995 film Virtuosity a smiley is used to mark a restaurant where the virtual serial killer "Sid 6.7" was hiding.

In the 2001 film Evolution a three eyed Smiley is used as a symbol for aliens.

A smiley can be vaguely seen on the bloodstained medical gurney in the crash scene of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

In Lost, one character landed on the island in a balloon with a smiley face on it.

WWE wrestler Mick Foley's most common logo is a smiley with his trademark Mankind mask over it. Also in his Mankind persona his catchphrase was "Have a nice day!", used ironically as a sinister heel and more literally as a comic face.

In the 2007 film Smiley Face.

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