United States advertising campaigns named Oscar, having an open mouth. Different designs were used in advertising campaigns in the early to mid-20th century. Much of this activity was centered on the
Northeastern United States. One of the first known commercial uses of a smiling face was in 1919, when the Buffalo Steam Roller Company in
Buffalo, New York, applied stickers on receipts with the word
"thanks" and a smiling face above it. The face contained a lot of detail, with eyebrows, a nose, teeth, a chin, and facial creases reminiscent of "man-in-the-Moon" style characteristics. Another early commercial use of a smiling face was in 1922 when the Gregory Rubber Company of
Akron, Ohio, ran an ad for "smiley face" balloons in
The Billboard. This happy face had hair, a nose, teeth, pie eyes, and triangles over the eyes. In 1953 and 1958, similar happy faces were used in promotional campaigns for the films
Lili (1953) and
Gigi (1958). Happy faces in the northeastern United States, and later in the entire country, became a "common theme" within advertising circles from the 1960s onwards. This rose to prominence during the 1960s and was remixed and interpreted in different ways up until the 1980s. There were sporadic designs of smiling faces or happy faces before this, but it wasn't until the WMCA in the early 1960s used yellow and black that the theme became more commonplace.
Walmart uses a smiley face as its mascot.
In print In the
United States, there were many instances of smiling faces in the 1900s. However, the first industry to widely adopt the smiley was the
comics and cartoons sector. Franklin Loufrani used the word smiley when he designed a smiling face for the newspaper he was working for at the time. The Loufrani design emerged in 1971, when Loufrani created a smiley face for the newspaper
France-Soir. The newspaper used Loufrani's smiley to highlight stories that they defined as "
feel-good news" In the
DC Comics, shady businessman "
Boss Smiley" (a political boss with a smiley face for a head) makes several appearances. The logo for and cover of the omnibus edition of the
Watchmen comic book series features a smiley badge worn by the character, the Comedian, with blood splattered on it from the murder that initiates the events of the story. In 2022,
Assouline published "50 Years of Good News", a comprehensive examination of the cultural development of the smiley face and its widespread use.
Music and film As music genres began to develop their own cultures from the 1970s onwards, many cultures started incorporating a smiling face into their culture. In the late 1970s, the
American band
Dead Kennedys launched their first recording, "
California über alles". The single cover was a collage intended to resemble a
Nazi rally prior to
World War II. It featured three of the vertical banners commonly used at such rallies, but with the usual
swastikas replaced by large smileys. In the UK, the happy face has been associated with
psychedelic culture since the
Ubi Dwyer and the
Windsor Free Festival in the 1970s, as well as with
electronic dance music culture, particularly with
acid house, which emerged during the
Second Summer of Love in the late 1980s. The association was cemented when the band
Bomb the Bass used an extracted smiley from the comic book series
Watchmen on the center of its "
Beat Dis" hit single. '' comic series logo In addition to the movie adaptation of
Watchmen, the film
Suicide Squad has the character
Deadshot staring into the window of a clothing store. Behind a line of mannequins is a yellow smiley face pin, which had been closely associated with another DC comic character, the
Comedian. The 2001 film
Evolution features a three-eyed smiley face as its logo. It was later carried over to the movie's spin-off cartoon,
Alienators: Evolution Continues. In the late 1980s, the smiley again became a prominent image within the
music industry. It was adopted during the growth of
acid house across
Europe and the UK in the late 1980s. According to many, this began when DJ
Danny Rampling used the smiley to celebrate
Paul Oakenfold's birthday. This sparked a movement in which the smiley face moved into various dance genres, becoming a symbol of 1980s dance music. In the 1994 film
Forrest Gump it is implied that the titular character inspired the smiley face design after wiping his face on a T-shirt while running across the country. In 2022,
David Guetta collaborated with
Felix Da Housecat and
Kittin to release the song,
Silver Screen, a reimagined version of the 2001
dance track. Guetta's version celebrated positivity and happiness. The music video features a cameo from street artist
André Saraiva and portrays different groups portraying the message "Take The Time To Smile". The video partners that message with numerous smileys, on the sides of buildings, on placards, and on posters.
Physical products Vittel announced in 2017 that it would be using the smiley on a special edition design of its
water bottles.
AdAge referred to its use as a "feel-good effect", and water bottles featuring the smiley icon had an 11.8% increase in sales compared to standard bottles, with 128 million bottles sold across Europe that bore the smiley design. In the UK, "Jammie Dodgers", a legendary biscuit line, features a smiley face engraved into circular cookies. In
China, there has been a steady growth in the use of smileys in its culture, both as a physical brand and also digitally. This rise in popularity has led to the opening of numerous smiley merchandise stores in the country. By the end of 2024, 15 stores had opened in the country in cities such as
Guangzhou,
Suzhou, and
Xiamen. It was expected that the number could top 50 stores by the end of 2027. Other countries in Asia were also experiencing a similar boom, including
Thailand, where three stores opened in 2024.
Art and fashion As part of his early works, anti-consumerist graffiti artist
Banksy frequently incorporated the smiley face into his art. The first of his major works that included a smiley was his Flying Copper portrait, which was completed in 2004. It was during a period when Banksy experimented with creating portraits on canvas and paper. He also used the smiley in 2005 to replace the Grim Reaper's face. The image became known as "
grin reaper" In 2007,
The Smiley Company partnered with
Moschino for the campaign "Smiley for Moschino." During the
COVID-19 pandemic, fashion label
Pull & Bear announced they would be releasing t-shirts with a smiley design incorporated on the front. High-end French jeweller Valerie Messika produced white gold and yellow pendants, which contained a smiley face. For the 50th birthday of the Smiley,
Galeries Lafayette in
Paris,
Beijing, and
Shanghai, as well as 10
Nordstrom department stores, sold limited-edition smiley products to commemorate the anniversary.
Gaming In 1980,
Namco released the now-famous
Pac-Man, a yellow-faced cartoon character. In 2008, the video game
Battlefield: Bad Company featured a yellow smiley as part of its branding. The smiley appeared throughout the game and also on the cover. The smiley normally appeared on the side of a grenade, which became synonymous with the
Battlefield series. The 1987
Atari ST game
MIDI Maze, released on other platforms as
Faceball 2000, features round, yellow Smileys as enemies. When a player is eliminated, these enemies taunt the player with the phrase "
Have a nice day". The Pokémon
Ditto is based on the smiley face.
Game Freak's staff described Ditto as "the weirdest Pokémon" in the franchise.
Events In recent times, the smiley has been used as a symbol for happiness or to spread joy in public places or at various events. One recorded example of this was at the
London 2012 opening ceremony. Balls were released into the crowd as the show began. The balls were large but light enough that members of the crowd could use them like a
beach ball, with each ball containing a large black smiley face on one side. A smiley was projected onto the base of the
Brooklyn Bridge in July 2020 "to cheer up New Yorkers". The 82-foot-wide projected smiley featured light pink lipstick on the mouth of the smiley. In 2022, the
International Day of Happiness was celebrated by projecting a smiley onto a number of landmarks around the globe. In
Seoul,
South Korea, a smiley celebrating happiness was projected onto the
Seoul Tower.
Social sciences User experience researchers have shown that the use of smileys to represent answer
scales may ease the challenges related to
translation and implementation for brief cross-cultural surveys. == Claim of ownership and trademark disputes ==