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July 13, 2006
The story behind the yellow smiley face
Over the past year, I've worked with several companies to help them manage the announcement of sometimes controversial transactions to employees. Our challenge is always to be as honest as we can while admitting we don't have too much to say. It was against these recent experiences that I smiled (no pun intended) when I came across a reference a few days ago about the origin of the yellow smiley face character, now well-known around much of the world.
While today many people know it as a marketing symbol used by Wal-Mart or as a :-) inserted into an email or text message, the most widely credited claim goes to Harvey R. Ball. He created buttons with the smiley face image in 1963 to cheer employees during a rocky merger between the State Mutual Life Assurance Company and an out-of-town company. Interesting to see that only does the smiley face go back over 40 years, but that it's initial purpose was to calm employee nerves during M&A activity. I have no idea if it worked back then, but I continue looking for a present-day opportunity where the solution is so simple!
Posted by Christopher at July 13, 2006 7:47 AM
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Comments
I wonder if that is the same Harvey as in Harvey Balls which we used to use many years ago in quality management tools such as the selection grid - using harvey balls 1-5 told you level of alignment on a topic, etc.
Posted by: regina at July 14, 2006 3:07 AM