How the smiley face made the whole world smile

No one really knows who started drawing the smiley, but it was a French publicist, Franklin Loufrani, who patented it. At the time, the French were gloomy as a scandal surrounding Minister Chaban-Delmas broke out. Then a journalist at France-Soir, Franklin Loufrani put forward the idea of ​​a “nice, positive, smiling campaign” to Pierre Lazareff. “It was my eyes, (…) those corners of my lips, it’s me”he says. He patents the logo. “Smiley” was the nickname he gave to his son Nicolas Loufrani. He was the one who would name the logo and decline it in other expressions, to put it in a royalty-free version on mobile phones and on the Internet. In 2008, Apple completed the mutation by launching emojis in Japan.

Now, an entire generation can no longer do without it. “It’s not really a new language, it’s more like a new punctuation mark.”explains linguist Laélia Véron. “There will be differences in the interpretation of smileys depending on the generations and cultural codes.”she continues. In words or emojis, the language of love always remains the most flowery and the most enigmatic.