Walmart Smiley in Firehat

A yellow background with a yellow smiley face wearing a red firehat with a yellow W on the front.

Wal-mart has been using a smiley face to represent their brand since 1996 when they started to release a series of "Rollback" commercials using the yellow happy face in different costumes.

Walmart has thus gotten into law suit with SmileyWorld, a company in London who claims to have created the image in 1968. In 2005, Charles Smith, a man from Georgia, decided to launch a parody site Walocaust to protest the mega-store's business practices. In reaction, Wal-Mart asserted common law trademark rights in the “smiley face” design prominently displayed in Wal-Mart stores, but it eventually began to phase out smiley in its vests and website in 2006 due to the negative press Smith's campaign has aroused.