Editing Smiley (section)

===United States advertising campaigns===
Before many countries had licensing and/or trademark restrictions on the smiley, different designs were used in advertising campaigns in the early to mid 1900s. Much of this activity was centered on the [[Northeastern United States]].{{citation needed|date=April 2024}} One of the first known commercial uses of a smiling face was in 1919, when the Buffalo Steam Roller Company in [[Buffalo, New York]], applied stickers on receipts with the word ''"thanks"'' and a smiling face above it. The face contained a lot of detail, having eyebrows, nose, teeth, chin, and facial creases reminiscent of "man-in-the-Moon" style characteristics.<ref>{{cite web |last1=van Den Berg |first1=Erik |title=De smiley is niet stuk te krijgen |url=https://www.volkskrant.nl/nieuws-achtergrond/de-smiley-is-niet-stuk-te-krijgen~b3837d85/ |publisher=[[de Volkskrant]] |access-date=5 April 2024 |archive-date=5 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240405144351/https://www.volkskrant.nl/nieuws-achtergrond/de-smiley-is-niet-stuk-te-krijgen~b3837d85/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Another early commercial use of a smiling face was in 1922 when the Gregory Rubber Company of [[Akron, Ohio]], ran an ad for "smiley face" balloons in ''The Billboard''. This happy face had hair, a nose, teeth, pie eyes, and triangles over the eyes.<ref name="ad1">{{cite web|url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:The_Billboard_1922-03-18-_Vol_34_Iss_11_(IA_sim_billboard_1922-03-18_34_11).pdf&page=28|title="The Gregory Rubber Co Toys ad on page 20 of The Billboard March 18, 1922"|website=commons.wikimedia.org|access-date=2021-06-16|archive-date=11 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210811235416/https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:The_Billboard_1922-03-18-_Vol_34_Iss_11_(IA_sim_billboard_1922-03-18_34_11).pdf&page=28|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1953 and 1958, similar happy faces were used in promotional campaigns for the films [[Lili (1953 film)|''Lili'']] (1953) and [[Gigi (1958 film)|''Gigi'']] (1958).<ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-news-an-early-smiley-in-an-ad-for/137152573/ An early smiley in an ad for the movie LILI (1953).] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240223150955/https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-news-an-early-smiley-in-an-ad-for/137152573/ |date=23 February 2024 }} (newspapers.com) Daily News, New York, New York, Tue, Mar 10, 1953, Page 312</ref>

Happy faces in northeastern United States, and later in the entire country, became a "common theme" within advertising circles from the 1960s onwards. This rose to prominence during the 1960s and was remixed and interpreted in different ways up until the 1980s. There were sporadic designs of smiling faces or happy face before this, but it wasn't until the WMCA in the early 1960s used yellow and black that the theme became more commonplace. Today trademark restrictions (e.g. [[The Smiley Company]]) make this kind of de-centralized design less likely or frequent.