Just came across a handful of cool sites which feature advertisements (main print) from various time periods and categories.

1. Ad*Access is a project at Duke University and features ads from 1911-1956 (roughly) on topics like: beauty & hygiene, radio, television, transportation and the WWII war effort.
2. AdFlip has ads from 1940 to today in all kinds of categories. You have to be a member though to get complete access to ads, and its retarded expensive at $204 a year, though you can also embark on a weeklong orgy of ad downloading for $14. Amazing that people found a way to make you pay to see ads.
3. The Emergence of Advertising in America: 1850 - 1920. Also out of Duke, features a variety of categories.

And here are a couple of links to different media literacy centers, just for good measure.

1. Media Awareness Network - From Canada, all the best ones seem to be from there. I think media literacy courses may be required there for highschool students.
2. Media Literacy Clearinghouse - for K-12 educators
3. Alliance for Media Literacy
4. 21st Century Information Fluency Project