I've been taught to look down on breweries that use corn in their beer, because it's a cheaper ingredient, and obviously men would never put corn in their beer.
That being said, why would you put flaked corn in your beer? I've heard generically of adding corn to more closely approximate a commercial clone, but that leaves me questioning, in what way does it change?
I use flaked Maize in an English Blonde ale that I regularly brew. It gives the beer a light body, a colour EBC of 6 and leaves a lovely sweetness and a subtle flavour. In this style of beer it works really well with White Labs WLP 002.
Hope this helps!
Classic Cream Ales which are an American contribution to the world of beer have use flacked maize or corn as a staple ingredient for three centuries. It started out as a way to brew when barley was in short supply and expensive cutting the cost of the Grist. Cream Ales are generally lighter, less ABV, and refreshing. They do have a slight background hint of the corn. Mostly they are smooth and delicious with low IBUs. I have several recipes I've come up with over the years and the maize is usually about 25 to 30% of the Grist. Try one some time you will enjoy it.
One reason is that there are some beer styles that rely on the corn flavor: for example, the Classic American Pilsner, aka Pre-Prohibition Pilsner, gets a lot of its flavor character from corn: BJCP style description
Flaked corn does lighten the body. Body is basically thick malty sweetness, so thinning out that malty sweetness with something that ferments completely lightens the body. (I'm not sure why Tobias is suggesting adding alcohol without sweetness doesn't lighten the body, diluting the sweetness with alcohol, or water, or anything non-sweet is the definition of lighting the body.)
Flaked corn does not actually completely ferment, close but not completely, like corn sugar does. Because it does not completely ferment it does add some corn flavor to the beer. It will lighten the body except in the case of beers already overloaded with sugars. The yeast will generally eat the flaked corn before barley because it has a higher sugar to starch ratio.
Corn will lighten the body of the beer and add a slightly sweet, "corny" flavor. It's subtle, but it's there. Corn is not just a way to cut corners. One of the finest Trappist breweries, Rochefort, reportedly uses corn in their beers.
I can't comment yet, so here is a link. The link takes you to a BYO article that does a good job of explaining adjuncts in brewing.
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