For the Westminster Dog show this year, Purina partnered with Leo Burnett and Jen Dean to remind both the competitors and lap viewers at home that they were all winners.

Built from online video submissions, the spot expands on the potential of the everyday dog and inspires watchers, both human and canine, to reach for gentle greatness.

While the audience most immediately reached for tissue, the inspirational seed was planted, and people are talking from Twitter to New York Times to Huffington Post. AdAge also took note, as did Fast Company, Creative, Jason Fox| The AdHole, Devour and AdWeek featured the spot, not once, but twice.

“I spoke with Tony Rogers, the creative director, and immediately loved his direction,” explains Jen. “I then pulled footage from all over the web and asked people on Facebook to send me any footage of their dogs. I asked family, people at parties, friends I ran into on the streets of NYC – my goal was to get as wide a variety of video as possible – stock footage alone would not work for this spot. It needed to feel authentic. I wanted people filming and capturing their dogs in private/triumphant/introspective moments. My main goal was to show dogs thinking, pushing themselves, achieving. I saw it as a Nike commercial for dogs. In a Nike ad, the most heroic thing you might see is a person getting in that early morning workout or shooting hoops alone in a gym. In the same way, these dogs are pushing themselves in intimate moments and being great – from catching a frisbee to saving and enriching human lives.”

Congrats Purina, Leo Burnett and Jen. As they say – a good commercial can make you laugh, but a great commercial will move you to tears.

Click through to see :30 spot or watch the :60 spot on Jen’s Reel.