Budweiser’s new Super Bowl ad reunites Clydesdale and dog in an emotional reminder of the American spirit

Budweiser is back again with another epic Super Bowl ad, but this time, it’s not about adorable puppies or talking frogs. The game is known to showcase best commercials of all time.

This year, the company deviated from warm and fuzzy themes to offer viewers something more poignant.

Ahead of the National Football League Championship this month, Budweiser released “A Clydesdale’s Journey,” a minute-long commercial that seeks to remind the American people where they have been, where they are, and what’s lies ahead as the country enters its third year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

After skipping the 2021 Super Bowl to donate funds toward COVID-19 vaccine education and awareness, Budweiser partnered with Oscar-winning filmmaker Chloe Zhao to produce the new ad.

The stirring advertisement features the brand’s signature marketing tandem: a Clydesdale and a dog. It will be definitely one of the best commercials of all time people will remember.

The video opens with the draught horse galloping across a plain at full speed while his loyal canine friend watches from a distance. However, the equine hits a broken fence post with barbed wire, causing it to fall down.

A veterinarian wraps the horse’s injured leg as worry fills the faces of its handler and dog pal. The Clydesdale rests on its stable, and the yellow lab watches him throughout the night.

The scene then shifts to storm clouds and crosses back to the horse in the stable, still struggling to get up.

Eventually, rising embers from a campfire reignite hope—a moment set to the rousing tune of Gary Clark Jr.’s live version of the national anthem plucked on an electric guitar.

Finally, the Clydesdale puffs out a breath and rises to its feet. With a whinny, it alerts the others with his triumphant return. The dog hears and responds with a bark before jumping from the back of a pickup truck to join his friend as it galloped across the field in full-throttle.

Then, the ad’s central message flashes on the screen: “In the home of brave, down never means out.”

“As America’s beer, we wanted to come back to the Super Bowl with a message of strength and resilience,” Daniel Blake, Group VP of Marketing, Budweiser & Value at Anheuser-Busch, said in a news release.

The beermaker hopes its new ad will inspire feelings of optimism among viewers who have faced different challenges brought about by the global pandemic.

“With this Super Bowl spot, our goal was to highlight the perseverance and determination of the country and depict that by coming together, we can grow and move forward stronger than before,” Blake said.

They company Zhao to direct the ad because of her “ability to capture true American character.”

“She captures the beauty in the everyday scenes, the scenes of Americana,” Blake explained.

“We all fall down in life and the journey to healing is often painful, long and solitary,” Zhao said in a statement, according to Reuters. “To tell a story of perseverance, hope and friendship through the lens of the beloved Clydesdales really resonated with me.”

This isn’t the first time Budweiser has pulled at people’s heartstrings with a commercial featuring the animal duo. Their 2014 Super Bowl ad, titled “Puppy Love,” showed the dog—a puppy then—constantly sneaking away to meet with the horse.

The pair forms a special bond, and when the adopted puppy is being driven to its new home, the Clydesdale starts a coup with fellow horses to get the dog back.

The following year, Budweiser’s Super Bowl commercial shows the dog returning to the farm after being gone for some time and is confronted by a wolf. A group of horses, led by its Clydesdale friend, break out of the barn to save the canine, and they dash to the farmhouse together.

Budweiser posted the 60-second version of its new ad on YouTube and will run a 30-second spot during the Super Bowl on February 13.

Yet again, Budweiser delivered nothing short of a masterpiece. Check out the brand’s new Super Bowl commercial in the video below. Be sure to watch Super Bowl if you don’t want to miss any of the best commercials of all time they are going to spotlight.

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