Right, so this is the commercial that has animal lovers tearing up just thinking about it because it’s so darn adorable that it physically hurts. This, of course, is the commercial where the rascally puppy sneaks away from his home and heads to the Clydesdale farm, where he licks the nose of his special friend, dances in the barn, and then looks forlornly over the shoulder of the person who starts carrying him away — back where, in theory, he’s supposed to belong.
Again, and again, and again. The audience knows where he belongs, and when he’s adopted out to a new family, his Clydesdale buddy makes it perfectly clear that he knows where he belongs, too. He recruits his other friends to help him stop the car, and if the triumphant prance of the liberated puppy leading a whole herd of Clydesdales doesn’t hit right in the feels, then nothing will break through that cold, dead heart.
Inc. says that the ad’s brilliance is in the story and the subtlety — there is, after all, no mention of the fact that it’s a Budweiser ad, relying on the iconic Clydesdales to get that across. And it absolutely worked: According to The Washington Post, the ad had more than 23 million views on the Friday morning before it had even aired during the Super Bowl. The preview was a great thing: Get those tears out.