Advertising puts a mirror to culture, allowing us to track changes in everything from music and hairstyles to attitudes and social mores. While researching a 2010 cover story on how the definition of masculinity needs to change if America wants to stay competitive in the 21st century, Andrew Romano turned to the Newsweek archives for signs of how American manhood had changed already. Click here to see nearly two dozen of the most revealing (and/or ridiculous) ads he discovered, organized chronologically from the 1950s to the 1980s.

If you know of any other ads that would contribute to our gender conversation, send them our way!