50 TH Anniversary Of The Smiley

[Dominique De Bast]

This French invention was born 50 years ago.





The inventor.

Source : the 18/03/2022 8 o'clock news from tv national channel France 2.

[Rik Jackman]

Vive le Smiley!

[Steve Klare]

-So Forrest Gump really DIDN'T invent that?!

[Ed Gordon]

It’s largely accepted that the original version of the familiar smiley face was first created 50 years ago in Worcester, Massachusetts by the late Harvey Ross Ball, an American graphic artist and ad man. Ball came up with the image in 1963 when he was commissioned to create a graphic to raise morale among the employees of an insurance company after a series of difficult mergers and acquisitions. Ball finished the design in less than 10 minutes and was paid $45 for his work. The State Mutual Life Assurance Company (now Allmerica Financial Corporation) made posters, buttons, and signs adorned with the jaundiced grin in the attempt to get their employees to smile more. It’s uncertain whether or not the new logo boosted morale, but the smiling face was an immediate hit and the company produced thousands of buttons. The image proliferated and was of course endlessly imitated but according to Bill Wallace, Executive Director of the Worcester Historical Museum, the authentic Harvey Ball-designed smiley face could always be identified by its distinguishing features: the eyes are narrow ovals, one larger than the other, and the mouth is not a perfect arc but “almost like a Mona Lisa Mouth.”

Neither Ball nor State Mutual tried to trademark or copyright the design. Although it seems clear that Ball has the strongest claim to the second most iconic smile in history, there’s much more to the story.

Ten years later:

In Europe, there is another claimant to the smiley. In 1972 French journalist Franklin Loufrani became the first person to register the mark for commercial use when he started using it to highlight the rare instances of good news in the newspaper France Soir. Subsequently, he trademarked the smile, dubbed simply “Smiley,” in over 100 countries and launched the Smiley Company by selling smiley T-shirt transfers.

That settles that! Or, does it?

Copyright and trademark issues are complicated, and despite their views toward Ball’s design, when the Smiley Company attempted to trademark the image in the United States in 1997, they became embroiled in a legal battle with Walmart, which started using the smiley face as a corporate logo in 1996 and tried to claim ownership of it (because of course they did.) The law suit lasted 10 years and cost both companies millions of dollars. It was settled out of court in 2007 but its terms remain undisclosed.

Article from which quotes above came: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-...-face-2058483/

And of course we all know that French Fries were invented in France:

The French and Belgians have an ongoing dispute about where fries were invented, with both countries claiming ownership. From the Belgian standpoint, the popularity of the term "french fries" is explained as "French gastronomic hegemony" into which the cuisine of Belgium was assimilated because of a lack of understanding coupled with a shared language and geographic proximity of the countries.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_fries

An original Harvey Ball smiley face (image: The World Smiley Foundation)

[Dominique De Bast]

And of course we all know that French Fries were invented in France

That's a possibility. Nobody really knows. There are different stories about that. But what is undisputed is that the best chips (called fries in the US) are made in Belgium. We do have a lot of delicious sauces (in addition to ketchup and mayonnaise) the French love a lot. They just find strange that we put mayonnaise on our chips/fries. That said, I love the malt vinegar people put on their chips/fries in the UK.

For the smiley, that's probably the same Edison/Lumière brothers's story Each side will find an element that will "proove" that...Since, I'm nor American, nor French, I will stick with eating the best chips/fries in the world, since I'm lucky to have just the street to cross to get some

[Ed Gordon]

...We do have a lot of delicious sauces (in addition to ketchup and mayonnaise) the French love a lot. They just find strange that we put mayonnaise on our chips/fries. That said, I love the malt vinegar people put on their chips/fries in the UK.

For the smiley, that's probably the same Edison/Lumière brothers's story Each side will find an element that will "proove" that...Since, I'm nor American, nor French, I will stick with eating the best chips/fries in the world, since I'm lucky to have just the street to cross to get some

In the US we love mayonnaise (usually in the form of Tartar sauce; which is mayo with chopped onions and capers)! I will pass up a gourmet meal any day for fish and chips sprinkled with Garlic Malt Vinegar...

[Dominique De Bast]

In the US we love mayonnaise (usually in the form of Tartar sauce; which is mayo with chopped onions and capers)!

Here, the sauce tartare (tartar sauce), which is one of my favourite, is not regarded as mayonnaise, it's a different sauce.

This topic will not help me loosing my extra kilos

[Brian Fretwell]

Most British people (I think) consider Chips to be the thicknesss of fingers, but Fries the the thickness of drinking straws.