Subaru’s Driving Dog Family Right on Honda’s Tail

A new Subaru ad that brings back the Barkleys, a family of driving dogs first introduced in a 2013 campaign, is giving Honda a run for its money on our weekly Most Engaging Auto Ads ranking, powered for WardsAuto by iSpot.tv.

Though Honda’s “The Dreamer” takes first place (inching up from No.2 last week), Subaru’s heartwarming “Dog Tested: Puppy” commercial surges onto the chart right behind, despite running for only part of the week and getting just five airings on national TV through Sunday night.

The “Puppy” spot is one of five new Barkleys ads set to air Feb. 7 during “Puppy Bowl XII” on Animal Planet.

Meanwhile, three other automakers, Mazda, Fiat and Toyota, join Honda in making repeat appearances on the chart.

Overall, automakers spent an estimated $92.8 million on national TV advertising for the week through Sunday. NBC, CBS and ABC, in that order, pulled in the most ad dollars from vehicle producers.

iSpot.tv tracks TV ads in real-time and allows customers to monitor social actions, search activity and online video views associated with TV spots across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google, Bing and Yahoo!

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1. 2016 Honda Civic TV Commercial, 'The Dreamer' Song by Empire of the Sun

17.32% Digital Share of Voice, 373k Earned Online Views

2. Subaru TV Spot, 'Dog Tested: Puppy'

14.93% Digital Share of Voice, 74k Earned Online Views

3. 2016 Mazda CX-5 TV Commercial, 'The Proposal: Driving Matters'

11.69% Digital Share of Voice, 297k Earned Online Views

4. FIAT 500X TV Spot, 'Zoolander 2: Blue Steel' Featuring Ben Stiller

8.67% Digital Share of Voice, 28k Earned Online Views

5. Toyota RAV4 Hybrid TV Commercial, 'Wolf Pack' Featuring James Marsden

7.99% Digital Share of Voice, 156k Earned Online Views