Thursday’s ad is for is by the United Brewers Industrial Foundation, from 1940. Beginning during World War II, the USBIF began a series of positive ads under the name “Morale is a Lot of Little Things” followed by an unnumbered series of illustrated ads that were a precursor to the numbered “Home Life in America,” the crown jewel of ads which ran from 1945 to 1956, also known as the Beer Belongs series. But they didn’t end there, and for a short time afterward, beginning in 1956, several more similar ads were created but without the numbering or the “Home Life in America” association. But even before those efforts, the UBIF put their toe in the trade advertising pond with ads under the title “The Record … Facts That Concern You” and always ending with the tagline “Beer … a beverage of moderation.”

In this ad, with the headline “What Hops Do For Beer And Ale,” the short answer is they’re “for flavor.” One curious aspect of this particular ad is that in the upper right-hand corner it indicates that this ad is “No. 21 of a series.” So far, I’ve only found three ads with this same “The Record” banner at the top. I’d long suspected there must have been more, but this leads me o believe there are many more, at least 21 and probably more than that. I wonder where they are?