Tag: State Mutual Life Assurance Company

World Smile Day😊

Friday, October 2, 2020

Do you know who created the smiley face?  Gotta tell you, we never, ever, not once, not even for a minute, believed it was designed by Forrest Gump, no matter what was portrayed in the movie!!!  But we, also, never gave a thought to who did.  We may be the only two people on the planet who did not know. 😒

In 1963, a graphic artist and professional adman from Worcester, Massachusetts created the ubiquitous and iconic Smiley Face.  Harvey Ball was hired by the State Mutual Assurance Company (now known as Hanover Insurance) to create an image that would increase the morale of the employees after a merger.  He created the simple cartoonish type image as part of a friendship campaign.  Meant to encourage smiles and good will, the smiley face was used on promotional materials including pins worn by all the employees.  The campaign was hugely successful.  As a matter of fact, more than 50 million smiley pins had been produced and sold by 1971!!😊

Ball never applied for a trademark or copyright.  Nor did the insurance company.  But in 1971, the French journalist Franklin Loufrani, who created a similar image to indicate “good news” in his newspaper, France-Soir, did!  By 1996, the Loufrani family founded the Smiley Company.  When the Smiley Company tried to trademark their design in the United States, it was denied because, by then, the use of smiley face designs was widespread.  However, the company does hold trademarks in at least 70 other countries.  Also in 1971, two brothers named Bernard and Murray Spain created an emblem with a smiley image and the added phrase “Have a Good Day”.  They got a trademark.😢

Harvey Ball never sued Loufrani.  But he did start the World Smile Day in 1999 as a day to smile and commit acts of kindness.  After his death in 2001, his son Charles founded the World Smile Foundation to license the original smileys and to promote World Smile Day.😍

The Harvey Ball design is distinguished by small oval eyes, right one larger, and a slightly off-center mouth. (Wikipedia photo by Garchy at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=63217337)

World Smile Day is celebrated every year on the first Friday of October.  Now it is only a coincidence, but Steve and Kathy Doocy (authors of The Happy Cookbook) have just published another cookbook, The Happy in a Hurry Cookbook.  As happy wanderers who love to eat, we can attest to the fact this is a fun and inspiring book to read.  It really does bring a smile to your face!!!

Steve & Kathy Doocy publish unusual and entertaining cookbooks.! All the recipes come with a story, so they are quite fun to read!!. And the recipes are good, too!!!

Wishing you a very happy World Smile Day!!!

Go spread some joy!!!