Thursday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1943. This World War 2 ad features a smiling boy holding a sandwich with the headline “You call it Bread … but your ancestors would have called it Cake.” Luckily during war we had an abundance of our daily bread, a.k.a. “the staff of life.” But look at the four illustrations behind the boy. The two on the left make sense. First, there’s a farmer harvesting wheat, which is used to make bread. Then there’s a woman in uniform holding a tray of bread. So far so good. On the right, there’s a shirtless man wearing white gloves and goggles holding a long metal rod. There’s also a giant vat behind him, the kind you see in steel mills. So why the hell is he shirtless? That makes no sense. Then there’s a man sitting but wearing what looks like an early hazmat suit with a diving bell helmet. What do either of those have to do with bread?

Tuesday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1942. This World War 2 ad features an ancient warrior protecting us, and then comparing that to how vitamins also protect your well-being. And thanks to A-B’s research into all the vitamins that are part of the brewing process, they’re guarding your well-being, too.

Monday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1942. This World War 2 ad features ghostly horses riding the sky above Navy warships to illustrate the power of diesel engines which, according to A-B, were first built for use in their breweries. Hmm.

Sunday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1943. This World War 2 ad features a scene aboard a warship that’s firing its guns, contrasting the modern ship to the sailors firing cannons from a colonial wooden ship, with the tagline “The Ammunition is being passed.”

Saturday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1941. This just prior to World War 2 ad features a frontiersman chopping down wood to contrast how open America was compared to “Today, [when] “you can’t find a place to park.”

Friday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1940. This just prior to World War 2 ad features English writer Samuel Johnson and his position on the importance of friendships.

Thursday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1943. This World War 2 ad features the animals marching down a hill, maybe to the slaughter, since it’s their meat that is the subject here. Even during the war, Americans are very well nourished, apparently in part due to Anheuser-Busch’s yeast being used to fortify animal feed. Hmm, seems like a bit of a stretch, but it is making me hungry.

Wednesday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1944. This World War 2 ad features a group of pilgrims walking through a snow-filled forest with the headline “Not an A Card in Ye Group,” which is a reference to rationing during the war. If you had an “A Card” you were permitted 3-4 gallons of gas per week, whereas a “B card” got you 8 and a “C card” got even more, but was reserved for doctors, mail carrier, railroad workers, ministers, etc. There were also “T cards” for trucks and buses and “X cards” for VIPs. It was primarily to save rubber, which was in short supply, not gas.

Tuesday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1944. This World War 2 ad features a Colonial American scene with “Ye Olde Melting Pot” on a street corner. I doubt that’s what actually happened, but I know there were scrap metal drives during World War 2. I have a newspaper clipping when my mother was a little girl when she was made a general in the “tin can army” for collecting a lot of metal (primarily because my grandfather’s job gave him access to it). What it has to do with beer is less clear, except that apparently the brewery also gave to the war effort.