The contest for this year's Super Bowl ads looks like a blowout with Budweiser is taking home the rings for the second year in a row.
This year's spot, "Puppy Love," is a 30-second novella about a yellow Labrador puppy that keeps sneaking over from a dog adoption agency to hang out with the Clydesdales at a farm next door. It adds a pooch — and a female love interest for the cowboy — to the horse and horse trainer bromance that gave Budweiser the lead in most shared Super Bowl ad last year.
With just days to go until the big game and many advertisers having uploaded preview or even full versions of their ads, the beer-maker's spot has dominated the YouTube view game like no one else, racking up over 14 million views. The closest contender, Hyundai's "Nice," has only 5.5 million. And not even Scarlett Johansson and an international controversy can top a pony and a puppy; the ad for DIY soda machine maker SodaStream so far has only 5.1 million.
While the traditional Super Bowl ad formulas call for babes, big laughs, or blockbusters, it looks like all America still wants is a slice of hot apple pie topped with whipped cream.
Contact Ben Popken via ben.popken@nbcuni.com, @bpopken, or benpopkenwrites.com.