You may not have known about this, but there is a company whose activities are entirely related to the use of emoticons. According to Zachary Crockett, a journalist for The Hustle, the inside of the Smiley Company is a room filled with yellow icons: “Emoticons adorn the walls. Emoticons are shown on sofa cushions. There are backpacks with emoticons, t-shirts with emoticons, balls for exercises with emoticons, toys with emoticons, sweets with emoticons and even nuggets in the form of emoticons. "
Emoticon creator
A business based on a yellow circle with black eyes and a smile already has a rich history. The first emoticon was the work of Harvey Ball, a freelance artist from Massachusetts, who was paid $ 45 ($ 376 in today's dollars) in 1963 to create an image that was supposed to cheer up State Mutual Life Assurance employees. The problem was that the artist did not patent his invention and could not profit when the image of the smile became known around the world.
New emoticons
After almost a decade, a French journalist named Franklin Luffrani wanted to invent a symbol that would highlight the most positive stories in the newspaper. What he came up with was very similar to Ball’s smiling face, and he made it his trademark in France so that he could license the image (that is, other companies could use the Lufrani smiley and then pay him part of the profit).
To increase demand, the journalist took advantage of the cultural climate of the early 70s and printed 10 million emoticons on stickers that he handed out for free. Soon licensing agreements followed with companies such as Mars, Levi's and other well-known brands.
In 1996, when things began to decline and the badge became less popular, the reins were handed over to the 26-year-old son of Lufrani, and he officially created the company Smiley. Now it is a business for 500 million dollars a year.
