A 30-second Super Bowl commercial costs between $8 and $10 million, depending on when it’s broadcast during the game. For many companies, that’s a bargain, as it gives a chance to put your product in front of a colossal audience and – if the ad is good enough – become part of the national conversation.
But it’s safe to say Ring, makers of increasingly omnipresent smart doorbells, may have slightly misjudged their ad. The short spot touts the ‘Search Party’ feature, which turns each Ring doorbell into a surveillance system tracking the front of any house it’s installed on.
.@ring's Super Bowl ad introduces Search Party for Dogs, a feature that transforms missing-dog posts into coordinated neighborhood searches using AI and outdoor Ring cameras.
— ADWEEK (@Adweek) February 2, 2026
The 30-second spot highlights that while 10 million dogs go missing annually, search methods haven't… pic.twitter.com/UyBet3asBE
In the ad, it’s used to track down a Golden Retriever as the company promises it helps return at least one missing dog per day. Returning beloved family pets? Who could possibly have a problem with that?
“An AI-fueled surveillance state”
Well, as it turned out, pretty much everybody. The immediate reaction was that if Ring doorbells can be converted into covert surveillance systems to track dogs, they can also be used to track people. It’s safe to say this came as a surprise to many viewers:
Did yall see that Ring Camera commercial???
— Jani Gem
Yall we are in DANGER(@Jani__Gee) February 9, 2026
Ring Camera introducing Search Party. AI video surveillance of your neighborhood. Constantly, everyday, always watching. You can’t not hide or escape. Skynet
— WonderousATX (@wonderousATX) February 9, 2026pic.twitter.com/Fkecv25yXl
ring offering to turn your neighborhood into an AI fueled surveillance state under the guise of “helping you find your lost dog” is CRAZY
— brig
(@82erssy) February 9, 2026
Ring "search party" Super Bowl ad review
— Oren John (@orenmeetsworld) February 9, 2026
this is just pure darkwave propaganda to normalize that Ring is using that data for other things besides checking our doors
using that they found 1 dog a day (365 dogs?) since it started – they put down 365 dogs a day fam what is this… pic.twitter.com/OTbq1rVPGD
The Ring ad is especially poorly timed as it comes when millions of people living in the United States fear that covert surveillance data will be accessed by the government and used to send a squad of ICE goons to bust down their door and disappear them into some nightmarish detention center.
Think that’s tinfoil hat stuff? Well, Ring is officially partnered with Flock, which allows law enforcement access to video feeds and footage from the devices. ICE has access to these cameras, so if they decide they want to track anyone with suspiciously brown skin using your doorbell, they can.
On top of that, the video these doorbells produce is hardly secure, as proven in 2023 when the FTC ordered the company to pay $5.8 million over claims that employees and contractors had unrestricted access to customers’ videos for years.
Americans have long resisted the kinds of omnipresent CCTV surveillance states that have arisen in many other countries. But it looks like Ring figured out the secret to making it work in the United States: convincing regular Americans to pay for and install the spy cameras!
