Of Course the Super Bowl's Most Viral Commercial Stars a Puppy and Horse

Oh, Budweiser. You and your friend Natty Light have ensured that the generation now entering the work force remembers none of what they learned in college, and now we're all crying at our desks over your Super Bowl ad about a puppy and horse who are — you guessed it — best friends. Released yesterday, the video, entitled "Puppy Love," has already earned over 13 million views. That's more than 13 million minutes of productivity Budweiser has cost our country. Check it out here:

Over the years, we've come to expect a lot of creativity from our Super Bowl commercials, but this one hit it out of the park by being laughably generic. Websites like Buzzfeed cater to our continuous adorable animal obsession, and cross-animal love stories have become especially popular. When people study our civilization in the future, they might wonder why the world's greatest military power was also enthralled by videos of cuddly animals. And I can't honestly say why now.

More than just reflecting the American public's need for adorableness, the ad campaign also illustrates how the Internet with social media and its meme-creating capabilities have seeped into the advertising world, irreparably. The pitch likely sounded something like, "While I know that a puppy and a horse have absolutely nothing to do with beer, people love adorable animals, especially unlikely pairs. Let's give them that with the hashtag, #bestbuds." Indeed, drinking Budweiser is left entirely off of the commercial, but the beer is so ubiquitous that it probably doesn't matter. To increase the heart string tugging effect, the ad is scored to Passenger's "Let Her Go."

Someone pass me the tissues. And a beer.