Getting citations from the smile police. Ugh!

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Yep....the ad people are trying to appeal to the demographic stated by B9, and by you, too.

Consumers who they believe will spend quite a bit of money.

I really hate ads. They are just trying to use psychology to trick people into thinking or feeling a certain way about their products. It's manipulation. I especially hate how it's used against groups who may be more susceptible to those tactics, like children and the elderly.

Sometimes I will turn off the sound on commercials, and just watch them without it. It's much easier to notice the manipulation without the sound being used to induce certain feelings. It all looks very ridiculous without any sound.

Regular people fall for ads probably because they think differently. They are more social and so probably more susceptible to the tactics used. Ads are probably not created with autistic people in mind.

I can't stand it when people tell me to smile, or to stop looking so grumpy. I wanted to scream at them, IT'S JUST MY FACE!! ! But mostly I just ignore them, because it wouldn't be polite to yell at them, even if they deserve to have it hammered through their thick skulls that I do not have to "look happy" all the time!

Yes, I am an American. It's good to know I'm not the only person on the planet who doesn't like smiling upon command. Maybe I was just born into the wrong culture? I don't know. I'm still learning about this Asperger's I've got.

At my last job, I was constantly being told I wasn't smiley enough. It hurt a lot because I thought I was smiling but I guess I wasn't. I hate being told to smile. I'm always getting told I look sad and miserable, even when I'm not.

I get this crap a lot, always have done. Amazingly I've even had such comments when I was sure that I WAS smiling. It gets me down. I asked one bloke to pack it in and he did. Another kept making loud comments in front of other people so eventually I told him that it was impossible to smile while looking at his ugly face. Then the laugh was on him for once. Usually I just seethe though.

Men have been the ones asking me to smile. Women (including my own mother) think I'm being grumpy/bitchy on purpose and that I need to shape up my attitude, that I am just plain mean.

The worst was when an elderly man at a store started calling out to me, "That's an EVIL face! Downright EVIL!!"

People ask me to smile a lot. It is really annoying. If you want me to smile, give me a good reason to smile. Most of the time, I'm thinking, so I'm not smiling unless I'm thinking about a good memory or a good joke. I really hate it when people say I should talk more and they are weirded out by how quiet I am. If you want me to talk more, make me feel included in the conversation and make an effort to get to know me. Often times, these same people get tired of hearing my weird voice, so they just ignore me.

Your memes sure made me smile

What I don't get is why people smile for pictures. It's freaky.

I have definitely been accosted by the smile police too LOL. Sometimes, if I know I'm in a situation where people really need me to smile, but I don't feel like it, I'll actually ask someone if they could tell me about something fun. I often try to hold onto genuine smiles to make them last longer. Sometimes I just laugh at myself, or if I meeting new people, I try to just focus on the pleasure of meeting someone new. It's nice that someone wants to get to know me, or, here's a chance to connect with someone. It's hard sometimes though when I am networking or at a tradeshow, and after a while, I really don't care about meeting new people anymore.

I agree with others on here; there are way too many completely fake smiles to go along with the fake people. Smiles have no meaning by themselves, because you don't really know why the person is smiling, as I've just proven above. Still, I know that a nice smile sets a nice tone for the conversation. In customer service and retail and advertising, people of come to expect the smiles and cheerful voices, even when they are very obviously fake. In those situations, I have found that it is better to try a little practiced, professional cheer if I can muster it.

Plenty of people practice speaking in front of the mirror, and part of it is so they can see their own smiles and body language and such.

When I told my friend how I feel about the smile police after I read this thread, he said I sounded like Holden from Catcher in the Rye. I like that, since Holden is funny and genuine, even if he does need some perspective.

Smiling is overrated. People who walk around with a perpetual grin on their faces are obnoxious!

You're all going to bang me.....but people look better in pictures when they smile.