The ubiquitous smiley face. A stylized representation of a human smile. The first recorded depiction of the form was in the Ingmar Bergman film Hamnstad in 1936, although not technically a smiley since the suicidal factory girl protagonist in fact draws an unhappy face on the bathroom mirror with lipstick. Sunkist oranges used smileys in a 1930s ad campaign, but the crude black and white stick drawings bear little resemblance to the finished work of art we recognise today.

Photo by Frank Weyrauther - Phrank.net

The smiley face craze is the work of two brothers, Bernard and Murray Spain. They were in the business of creating fad items and in 1970 recalled the smiley which had by then been floating around for years in the advertising business. Looking for a peace-like symbol but with more general appeal, while surrounded by protests, war and hate – what they wanted was a symbol of happiness and love. The brothers say with admirable frankess, it was also to make a buck. In essence they did little more than add the phrase “Have a nice day” to the smiley, the fad lasted a year and a half and the number of smiley buttons produced by 1972 was estimated at 50 million.

But who invented the original smiley face? In December 1963, State Mutual Life Assurance initiated a merger campaign which had bad effects on company morale. They wanted a way to “promote friendship” and turned to Harvey Ball, a graphic artist in Massachusetts. Harvey, clearly not a man to waste ink initially drew only the smile but realised it could be turned upside down to become… a frown! He added two eyes, so that if it was now turned upside down it would mean… I’m standing on my head – a more ambiguous sociopolitical message. He made it yellow for a sunshiny look and State Mutual upon realising the buttons were a hit, began to hand them out by the thousands. Mr Ball’s take home pay: $45 art fee. State Mutual, clearly not quick on the uptake, didn’t make any money either.

Seig Howdy!

The feel-good symbol of freedom and experimentation hit the American masses at just the time of post-1960′s malaise: a traumatised American public turning to visual soma in order to forget the Vietnam war and presidential meltdown. The smiley represented such a blank childlike form of contentment it was ripe for subversion. In 1979, Bob Last and Bruce Slesinger put together a collage of Californian Governor Jerry Brown and a Nuremberg-style rally to illustrate the UK Fast Records release of the Dead Kennedys’ California Über Alles. Behind the podium were large red, white and black banners: in place of swastikas were large Smileys. In the comic Watchmen the smiley is used as a visual metaphor for megalomania. Then came the explosion. In February 1988, Bomb The Bass released a 12″ record using the blood-stained Watchmen smiley face as cover. A month earlier, Danny Rampling has used the smiley for his infamous club Shoom. The symbol took only a few months to catch on, but when it did, it swept the country as the logo of acid house.

Bomb Dis Bass

The initial media response to acid-house culture was positive. In the UK the smiley had been loosely associated with psychedelic scenes since the 70′s. The emerging movement of the second summer of love in the 80′s cemented it’s counter-cultural status by engraving the smiley logo on ecstasy tablets of the time. Like most youth cults, there was soon a media backlash – connecting the symbol to immorality and vice. The smiley began to be associated with “evil ecstasy” and drug barons. The negative associations continued into the 90′s with Nirvana using it in their iconic “corporate-rock-whores” t-shirt with crossed out eyes and a drooling mouth.

As you might expect, the Smiley has also been surrounded by copyright controversies ever since the early 1970s when a Frenchman, Franklin Loufrani registered the trademark as Smiley World in some European countries. He claims to not only have created “the smiley” but also own the concept as an international trademark. It can be factually proven that the symbol was conceived long before his trademark claim, so surely this is just profiteering on a cultural phenomenon of which he has no honest right to possession. In 2006 Wal-Mart tried to trademark the smiley, but lost in a court case with Loufrani.

Faces everywhere

In terms of Ibizan folk-lore. It is said that Alfredo popularised the smiley face with a collection of stickers he got from a friend working for an Italian children’s charity at the time. After his marathon daytime sets at Amnesia, people would beg him for copies of records he had played. The Balearic master would stick the smiley face stickers to the label of the 12″ before handing them out to revelers. Thanks to Mat Playford for that little piece of info.

It may seem weird that such a bland symbol should be used to convey emotion, in such a way that creates as much distance as real empathy. But then there is something powerfully archetypal about an image of a happy face that resembles the sun. Infantilisation or greater communication, joy or horror: the Smiley can encompass everything. It pretends to be our servant, but it will rule us all. – The Guardian

A history of the smiley face

UrbanFaces.de

A history of the smiley face

Guardian article on the smiley face

BBC article on the Wal-Mart smiley

Smiley face on Wikipedia