Expressions
According to the Harvey Ball World Smile Organization:
The Smiley Face was created in America and has been part of American culture since its inception. Americans can be proud of the fact that the Smiley Face has since become the international symbol of good will and good cheer.
It is odd that a basic form of human expression can be subject to a claim of ownership, made into a product, and appropriated for commercial purposes.
Representations of the smile can be found all over the world and throughout history, connecting Greek sculpture from the 4th century BCE to the emoticons we use for communication on social networks.
A smiling face is a universal bi-directional, social-communication device. Language independent, it is a compact, non-verbal, lightning-fast message that evokes feelings of friendliness, trust, and confirmation--even if the smiling face is a visual depiction, and not a live person--which explains why it is used so broadly in product advertising, design, and user...
