***All signs point to a Wal-Mart connection...***
I saw lots of them in 1973 before Wal-Mart became national. K-mart, Gibson’s and TG&Y were the leaders then.
The origin of the smiley face is actually an insurance company. The company failed to copyright the design, so other folks printed it up.
Similarly, the origin of the MTV logo of the modified moon walk, is because MTV needed an inexpensive logo and gubmint film footage isn’t copyrighted.