Happiness is Humphrey

Black text and an illustration of a smiley face on a yellow background

“Happiness is Humphrey” refers to a statement made by Democratic candidate Hubert Humphrey during his 1968 campaign against Republican candidate Richard Nixon, to whom Humphrey lost, which has been documented as "the way politics ought to be...the politics of happiness, the politics of purpose, the politics of joy." Humphrey had served as the 38th Vice President of the United States under President Lydon B. Johnson from 1965 to 1969.

The classic yellow smiley face is comprised of a yellow circle, two black dots for eyes, and a black arc ending in serifs for a mouth. It was designed in 1963 by commercial artist, Harvey Ross Ball. Ball was commissioned by The State Mutual Life Insurance Company to create a happy face to raise the morale of their employees. His version was created in 10 minutes. The design was printed onto more than 50 million buttons. Neither Ball nor the company copyrighted this smiley, so it was continually used by other businesses in their promotions.
The design and concept is quite simple and was definitely used before Ball’s 1963 version. However, his has become the most iconic. Variations have been used for advertising campaigns and in popular culture ever since.