Gum Advertisement in 7-11 Number Four

I pass seven 7-11s during my twenty-five minute bike ride to Fukushima Station.  There used to be eight, but one closed because of the economy.  I've thought about organizing a Slurpee crawl for July 11th., but the Japanese prefer real food.  Despite ubiquitous vending machines, Japanese 7-11s primarily traffic in beer and beer-like products, juice, and canned iced coffee, which is surprisingly good, although it tends to sting the bowels on occasion.  

Being exhausted from two consecutive days off, I decided to stop at 7-11 number four to purchase said coffee and make it through my late class without falling asleep.  In the process I came across this advertisement, which is interesting for a variety of reasons:

First of all, it's huge, spanning one aisle's width.  (I guess my task for tomorrow is to see if every 7-11 carries this ad.)  Second, it's striking.  I noticed it immediately, and even though I was already attracting a lot of attention to myself, I was compelled even to stick my neck out and take a picture.  What is its message?

The product being advertised is gum (I think.  I'm not really a gum chewer, and I was too busy looking at the art to pay attention to the product, which is another interesting aspect I guess.)  The advertisement relies on a typical Darwinian "Rise of Man" motif with six panels; the first two characters are noticeably ape-like, the middle two are meant to evoke cavemen; the fifth panel is a samurai, and the last, one of the many cookie-cutter, eyebrow-shaving, metrosexual men taking Japan by storm.  

Consider the cultural statement such a hierarchical arrangement explicitly makes: the samurai were an intermediate phase between cavemen and the sensitive men of today who care about their looks.  Perhaps my reading is ethnocentric (Eastern cultures don't necessarily correlate the passage of time with progress.), but it seems like there is a definitive notion of progress at work here, and why wouldn't there be?  Stoic men don't buy beauty products.  

Not only is this particular company marketing its own product, but it is marketing an entire industry, an entire culture, an entire way of life to Japanese men, a way of life which necessarily entails spending lots of money on consumer goods and cosmetics.

I bought my coffee, hopped on my bike, and headed out of the parking lot, part of me regretting not buying the gum, but part of me thinking about how advertising provides such a truthful, organic window from which to view a society, whether from the inside or from the outside.  Successful companies are selected by consumers based on brand images, much like the Darwinian process depicted in this particular advertisement.  What does the selection of this brand say about Japanese consumers?