Did you deliberately make someone smile last Friday? Or perform a special act of kindness. If you did, you were fully in the spirit of the day, World Smile Day, an idea that is celebrating its 60th birthday.

It was 1963, and State Mutual, an American life insurance company, had a problem. They had recently purchased several other insurance companies and a huge morale problem had developed as they were trying to integrate the various cultures. To help them address the situation, they contacted Harvey Ball, a Worchester Massachusetts advertising and graphic arts designer.

After discussing possible solutions for the company’s morale problems, Harvey sat down at his drawing board and in 10 minutes came up with . The records available do not record if  improved morale, but we know State Mutual made many posters and thousands of pins displaying their new icon.  has since proliferated arguably billions of times and brought smiles and a feeling of happiness to millions of people around the world. Harvey’s bill was $45, and despite its success, neither Harvey or State Mutual bothered to trademark or copyright the design.

While the State Mutual story is the generally accepted version of the origin of  some have disputed it and claimed they were the originators, including Bernard and Murray Spain, two American Hallmark Card shop owners. While acknowledging Harvey Ball’s design, in 1971 the two brothers used  on some cards, took credit for creating it and copyrighted it. Along the way they started spreading the use of the saying, “Have a nice day!”

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic in France a journalist by the name of Franklin Loufrani registered in  Europe for commercial use and started to license the image, calling it Smiley. When they tried to register the design in the U.S., however, Loufrani ran into Walmart which was using a similar smiling face as a part of their corporate logo. Ten years and many legal bills later, an out-of-court settlement was reached. No one seems to know what the agreement says, but  is being used by Walmart.

Harvey Ball’s family found this corporate trademarking and wrangling distasteful and started a charity, The World Smile Foundation to honour Harvey and his creation. The foundation now licenses  and uses the proceeds to fund children’s charitable organizations.¹ It also created World Smile Day, held every year on the first Friday in October. During this day the Foundation encourages everyone to make someone else smile and perform an act of kindness.

As good as  is, however, it doesn’t even come close to the power of a real smile. Psychologists, researchers, and scientists all tell us that a real smile creates endorphins in our bodies, bringing with it pleasant feelings plus many health and related benefits including:

• Elevating and improving our mood
• Making us look younger and more attractive
• Helping reduce stress
• Boosting our immune system
• Reducing blood pressure and pain
• Making us more likeable and easier to relate to
• Relaxing us and reduces our anxiety
• Helping us become and/or stay positive
• Making us kinder, warmer, and more approachable
• Improving our endurance

Given all of the evidence, smiling almost certainly helps us live longer, and most importantly, it’s contagious. Most of us, however, don’t need a psychologist to tell us the benefits of smiling. We just need to be aware of our own feelings when we smile or watch someone else smile, such as a baby. It’s a natural behaviour. Starting at two months of age, babies smile up to 400 times per day. On average, adults only smile 20 times per day ... women more than men. Very happy adults tend to smile twice as much as the rest of us.

We are also constantly reminded about the effects of smiling with expressions such as, “grin and bear it,” or “put on a happy face,” or Charlie Chaplin’s insightful comment— “It only takes a split second to smile and forget, yet to someone that needed it, it can last a lifetime.”

^{1 The World SMILE FOUNDATION licenses  in North America, the U.K., Europe, China, and the Far East. Frank Lougrani licenses in 100 other countries.}

Chris Snyder is the author of several books and several hundred articles on personal finance, Chris’ most recent book "Creating Opportunities-A Volunteer's Memoir" describes a lifetime of volunteer experiences, much of it as an active member of the Rotary Club of Toronto and on many not-for-profit boards. Chris currently is past chair of the Canadian Landmine Foundation, founding chair/current chair of HIP (Honouring Indigenous Peoples and on the board of CUSO and the Trudeau Centre of Peace, Conflict and Justice. His latest book, “Good News in A Crazy World,” will be published by Civil Sector Press in 2024.