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All say:

Mao zhu xi   wan          sui
Mao chairman ten-thousand years of age.
(i.e., "long live chairman Mao!")

I've seen the same thing in some of the early 80 pages.  These three are
all written in simplified characters found on the mainland (whereas
in Taiwan and Hong Kong they use the complete, traditional, before-the-
Communist characters).

clue:  This is just a weird thing about SmileyGuy. As I write this, this is the earliest appearance he makes in 
the ads. He's got 6 hairs. In the next ad, he has 5. In the following ad, another of the "new" ads, he's got 6 
again. In the next ad, it's hard to tell, but he appears to have 6. In the next ad, May 1, 1985, he's got 5. OK, 
so I decided to check them all. From May of 1985 on, from what I would tell, he always has 5 hairs (there were 
four ads where he was either too small for me to tell or partially obliterated). Then, it changes again, and 
from May 1997 to the present, he consistently has 6 hairs. In the March 20, 1991, ad, he apparently doesn't 
appear, but part of the ad is obscured on  the right.

Minutiae (I may be getting a little too obsessed with this stuff), but there it is.

clue:  Bob might be onto something. If these ads are drawn up by a group of people, maybe small variations in the SmileyGuy 
are a
signature as to who created the ad. I took a quick look through some of the ads and on March 15, 1985, SmileyGuy has 7 hairs.

clue:  My observation of Smiley Guy is that the drawing seems to be very consistant, apart from details.  It does seem to be a
signature, but my opinion is that it's been drawn by the smae person for the run of it.  The number of hairs may communicate
something else... also the shape of the ears seems to change a little.  In later ads he has more earlobes.

Is this the way smiley guy always looks? Looks like he's made out of characters. Nose is an s. mouth is a c. Head
is an o. They eyes are two i. The ears might be o's or a d and a c. The hairs are... well I don't know.
soocii(c)(d)??

Anyone care to make a guess what it is spelling? The hairs might also be a clue. six hairs on top? on the head? A 6
looks like a G. Hairs could me made into "hare" since they are pronounced the same.

I am somewhat hesitant to post this, as it seems somewhat silly, but to me smiley guy bears a striking resemblance to the
BFG from Ronald Dahl's children's story of the same name.  There are, however, some interesting coincidences with this story.  It
was published in 1982, and although it seems that the hardback version came out in November, but I think that there was a version
published before May 1 of that year (see http://www.allbookstores.com/book/0224020404).  Furthermore, in this story the main
character (other than the BFG) is a little girl named Sophie who lives in an Orphanage.  I don't know how this would fit into the
rest of the puzzle though (not that it's unique in that respect).

clue:  Regarding: May Day, 1982.

A few notes that seem pertinent to me.

1. Peoples obsession with "smiley guy"'s details seems a little skewed from a puzzle solving perspective. It seems to
be mostly a signature... I don't think this is likely. More probably the number of hairs seems more significant, like
a ROT code (alpabet rotation... a ROT 1 (or -25) = b, a ROT -1 (or +25) = z) or other message modifier.

2. The "long live Mao" message is most likely either a pre-shared code word with a set meaning, or a method of
conveying a number/set of numbers. I lean towards this definition when I see the extra stroke above the first
character in this advert.

3. "May Day, 1982" when turned into a seies of numbers by counting letters and splitting into groups of 2, becomes: 33
19 82 This seems much like other sets of "co-ordinates" that have been derived from other mesages.

4. Numbers being communicated are most likely to be physical co-ordinates (lat. long.), times, radio frequencies, or
literature references.

5. Everything needs a frame of reference, so here are a few things to try (for those ith the time available to them):

- The messages seem to have a communist overtone, and numbers may pertain to references in a common communist
publication (eg: Mao's little red book)

- Each new message is possibly a modifier from the previous or orriginal message (it has been hinted at by persons "in
the know" that all messages are required to decipher the latter ones)

- Many messages contain multi-lingual components. The specific translation of these messges may not be necessary. It
may be enough to know where the message is taken from.

- Has anyone tried measuring physical offsets of items in relation to the message's bounding box? these measurements
may be crucial.

- Has anyone tried plotting any of these numbers on a cartesian plane (or using them as 3D references)?

- Any geographical locations referred to by numbers may be relative to a 0-point, such as a campus map

- SR/CL is most likely to be S.R. of C.L. ie. (Name/position of message writer) of (Group name)

There are so many other possibilities.

A key thing to remember... due to distortion when printing, and human error when drawing/writing small inconsistancies
(like the size of "smile guy"'s earlobes) should not be seen as significant. Rather, refer to things that can be
easily quantified (number of lines/strokes, number of items/lines of text in messgae eg: this message has 4 or 5
"lines" in it depending on interpretation & grouping of the extra stroke).

THESE MESSAGES SHOULD BE DECIPHERABLE WITH TOOLS NO MORE COMPLICATED THAN A SLIDE-RULE OR POCKET CALCULATOR, A PENCIL
AND A PIECE OF PAPER (OR TWO)

I hope this helps someone.

Any stamp collectors out there?  The postal service of China (whatever that's called) issued a stamp set on May 1, 1967. 
The serial number is W2.  The stamp set was named Long Live Chairmen Mao and contained 8 different stamps.  The set issued on May
1st, 1967 is the only set named Long Live Chairman Mao.  The stamps can be seen here:

http://www.1-10-100.com/youpiao/wgp/yw2.htm

I think this should be looked into further.  Maybe someone has already noticed the connection.  Forgive me if this has been
mentioned before.  I haven't checked the rest of the site.  The smiley-faced man looks like a poorly drawn portrait of Mao himself.
I think you are reading too much into the drawing.  I don't believe the number of hairs makes a bit of difference.

I tracked back to the first appearance of Smiley Guy to make an observation. I'm absolutely certain I've seen this diagram
somewhere before, but it has been so long I've forgotten where. I vaguely remember that the face itself is some sort of rebus. The
only detail that I specifically recall is that the nose and right eyebrow form the number 5. This should be more obvious from the
drawings in later years, the 5 has become more apparent. The other parts of the face are probably some sort of numeric
representation, but I don't recall how. This must have come from some child's puzzle I saw at an early age.

the smiley guy has six hairs this time

	Is it just me, or does the smiley guy's nose look like an "S?" I mean, it's probably irrelevant or has been mentioned
already, but I just thought I'd point that out.

clue:  6 hairs on the head is the number of Venus (6) in most numerologies and the head is elliptical like the solar system.  The
other numbers 1 through 9 also have planetary and astrological references.  What is now called astrology once was standard
astronomy and the plotters are obviously interested in contemporary astronomy and geodesics.  They probaby use arcane references in
dopey ways to give exact locations but broken up into parts.  I think it would be very difficult to assemble the parts unless you
got one or more of them to talk.

I just realized something... cover the dots on his face... or imagine the dashes being the eyes...

Well hey there guys... To tell you the truth i am from south africa and all of your theories are wrong. All of the
translation that you guys have written in your jestures are incorrect.. Afrikaans is a language that originates from Dutch as our
country was taken over by the Germans in World war1. We have never used hyroglyphics or anything in that form in any of South
Africa's 11 official languages so if any of you would like to find out the truth and correct information about SA just e-mail me
and i will be glad to help out. I am an SA citizen and have only been here a while but i am here to correct you guys... 

I have been pondering the smiley face guy for years, because I am sure I have seen it somewhere before. I think it is the
key to the mystery somehow.

I recall seeing this image as a child (in the 60s, predating the Mystery), but no matter how I wrack my brain, I cannot recall the
details. But I am sure it is a rebus of some sort, and that it was drawn bit by bit, as some sort of visual joke that unfolds as
each piece adds some sort of meaning. The only thing I can remember specifically is that the nose and the right eyebrow form the
number 5.

I also vaguely recall seeing this image used in a cartoon joke book about "Bohemies." I grew up near a city with a large population
of Czechs, the local ethnic nickname was "Bohemies." Perhaps Czechoslovakia is relevant? I do not recall how the smiley face is
associated with "Bohemies."

Remember the Coordinates to tucson from the previous page?

Go to the corresponding Page/paragraph/word in The BFG, Pre-May 1st edition?

Thats my only hunch.