Paving the road to Berlin with a million smiles

The Smile Europe campaign is betting on the power of the smile to spread happiness and joy across the continent. By travelling through the city streets and asking people to smile for the camera, the Smile Europe team is racking up smiles.

THERE IS nothing simpler than a smile to turn around a stressful situation. The Smile Europe campaign is betting on the power of the smile to spread happiness and joy across the continent. By travelling through the city streets and asking people to smile for the camera, the Smile Europe team is racking up smiles in the thousands. Over one million ‘smile snaps’ are expected to be collected and brought to the World Culture Festival on July 2nd and 3rd in Berlin, Germany.

The Art of Living Foundation is organising the festival, which is expected to draw 70,000 participants. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, founder of the Art of Living Foundation said, “A baby smiles 400 times a day, a teenager only smiles 17 times, and an adult hardly smiles. We don’t smile from our hearts, what is wrong with us? It is the stress and the tension that we carry on. Can’t we all dream of a world which is free from stress and violence? Are you willing to dream with me this time?” 

Jack Johansson, Smile Europe Coordinator, says the Smile Europe team will be providing participants with knowledge and tools about how the breath can let us smile even more in our everyday lives, showing us a way to the dream of building a violence-free, stress-free society. 

At a time when 30 percent of the European population is reported to be suffering from depression, the Smile Europe campaign is bringing a smile to as many people as possible in a quick and fun way.

On the first Saturday of every month until July, people from all over the world will be snapping pictures of smiling people and posting them to Facebook. “It's fascinating how such a simple campaign can make a difference to people and put a big smile on their faces,” says Lilian Rätzke. She was photographed by the Smile Europe team in Berlin. “I was really inspired and happy to share my smile.”

The Saturday Smile Live Show will also be aired on Web-TV on the first Saturday of every month until July. The show will present cultural music productions and smile-inducing inspiration from participants in Berlin and across the world ahead of theWorld Culture Festival. The Saturday Smile Live shows will be webcast on the first Saturday of each month before the World Culture Festival. These dates are: March 5th, April 2nd, May 7th, June 4th, and July 2nd. 

The Smile Europe initiative is a spin-off from an earlier campaign that began in July 2009 in Washington, DC. Art of Living teachers-in-training collected over 5,000 smiles in only 48 hours.

They simply approached people on the street with cameras and asked them to smile. In August 2009, the Smile Miami team was featured on NBC News for their volunteer work spreading smiles. Says Natalia Stefanova, Smile Miami Coordinator, “Most of the time it works. I'd say 99% of the time, even if the person doesn't stop to smile to take a picture, they walk away smiling.”

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