The smiley symbol is familiar to everyone these days. You constantly encounter the good mood symbol on T-shirts, album covers and much more. We inform you about the history of the yellow icon and tell you how the cheerful symbol is celebrated this year.
History of the icon
As The Smithsonian Magazine also reports, the actual history of the smiley begins back in 1963, when the American Harvey Ball invented the yellow circle with the grinning face. At that time, his advertising company was commissioned to boost the morale of an insurance company, State Mutual Life Assurance Cos. of America, with colorful pins. So Ball came up with the idea of depicting a smiling colorful face. The design reportedly took him only 10 minutes to complete. As a reward, the inventor received a fee of only 45 US dollars. In 1982, the famous combination of characters was created. Scott E. Fahlmann, a future professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University in the USA, wrote to his colleagues: “I propose to mark jokes with the following character combination: :-) Read it sideways. However, given the current circumstances, it is probably easier to mark those things that are NOT jokes. Use :-( for that.” Quickly the idea spread and the iconic character combo was created which since then enriches many text messages and brings a smile to quite a few people’s faces. If you want to know how you can get your Facebook Chat profile as a smiley, visit our homepage The Geeks Club.
The smiley as a social commitment
Unfortunately, Harvey Ball never applied for a patent on the invention which meant that there were no further financial gains. Of course, at that time it was not predictable that a smiling face made of a few brush strokes would become so successful that a few years later millions of smiley faces would be grinning down from clothing, stickers and much more. Nevertheless, Ball continued to work with the smiley symbol for many years and founded the World Smile Corporation which donates the revenue from its sold products to children’s charities worldwide. In 1999, Harvey Wall created the World Smile Day on which everyone should do something nice. This resulted in the day’s motto: Do something kind. Help a person smile. This day is celebrated every first Friday in October. I guess the bottom line of this story is: sometimes the simplest and most obvious ideas are the best. The only sad thing is that Harvey Ball couldn’t earn much with his grandiose invention. However, there are other ways to make big money: online gambling halls with promising bonus offers or cashback promotions offer the chance to get high winnings with a bit of luck. However, with the large selection of providers, it is often difficult to find one that is reputable and has a large range of games. Various comparison portals can help to find the best conditions. The Platform Vegas Slots Online, for example, is free of charge and offers a comprehensive overview of the best online casinos with one click where large sums may already wait for the players.
David Guetta celebrates the smiley
This year, the song “Take the Time to Smile” turns fifty. As The Music Essentials report, David Guetta becomes part of the Smiley campaign with an exclusive video for the hit song “Silver Screen” featuring Felix Da House Cat and KITTIN. The song was firstly released in 2001. The new music video artistically brings together the smiley, the song’s title and the worldwide street art campaign by graffiti artist André Saraiva, who makes a cameo appearance in the video. “The video for my ‘Silver Screen’ rework with Felix Da Housecat and KITTIN’ captures the Smiley message of happiness and bringing people together perfectly. The upbeat track combined with artwork from graffiti-maestro André Saraiva and appearances from Dude With A Sign results in a video that I hope will make people smile,” says David Guetta.
