The ad was meant to be heartwarming, but it's reading as dystopian to many viewers.
By
Timothy Beck Werth
Tech Editor
Timothy Beck Werth is the Tech Editor at Mashable, where he leads coverage and assignments for the Tech and Shopping verticals. Tim has over 15 years of experience as a journalist and editor, and he has particular experience covering and testing consumer technology, smart home gadgets, and men’s grooming and style products. Previously, he was the Managing Editor and then Site Director of SPY.com, a men's product review and lifestyle website. As a writer for GQ, he covered everything from bull-riding competitions to the best Legos for adults, and he’s also contributed to publications such as The Daily Beast, Gear Patrol, and The Awl.
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“Be a hero in your neighborhood.” Credit: Ring / YouTube
Why is everyone so mad about the Ring Super Bowl ad? The short TV spot "Search Party" should pull at the heartstrings — it's got a puppy, lost dogs, a father and daughter, and a happy ending. It even promises viewers they can "Be a hero in your neighborhood.”
What more could you want?
Privacy.
Many viewers on both the right and left were disturbed by the privacy implications of the advertised "Search Party" feature. This AI tool is designed to reunite lost dogs with their owners, and the Super Bowl ad claims that one lost pet is found every day thanks to the technology.
Here's how Search Party works: When a dog is lost, pet owners can upload a picture of their pet, at which point their neighbors' Ring video doorbells and security cameras will start looking for the lost pup. Of course, as viewers quickly realized, if Ring can do this for lost dogs, there's no reason it couldn't identify a human face just as easily.
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I was at the November 2025 Amazon event where Search Party was first announced, and the AI detection feature seemed problematic from the jump. As I reported at the time, privacy advocates warned that some of Amazon's new AI features could even violate state privacy laws.
Of course, those privacy laws don't apply to dogs, which is why critics are calling Search Party a Trojan horse for mass surveillance technology.
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For progressive Americans on alert because of increased ICE activity, the ad seemed especially poorly timed.
Ring's history is also working against it. In the past, progressives have criticized Ring for sharing footage with law enforcement, which the company has said it only does in rare emergencies, with customers' permission, or when required to do so by a subpoena or warrant. On top of that, back in 2023, the Federal Trade Commission accused Ring employees and contractors of accessing customers' private videos.
Despite these controversies, Ring remains very popular, including among Mashable readers. Remember: for many customers, cooperating with law enforcement is a feature, not a bug, in a home security company.
Regardless, it's clear that the Search Party Super Bowl ad struck a nerve. Strangely, it wasn't the only vaguely dystopian advertisement from Amazon this year.
A Super Bowl LX commercial for Alexa+ showed actor Chris Hemsworth being repeatedly killed by the newly AI-powered smart home assistant.
Timothy Beck Werth is the Tech Editor at Mashable, where he leads coverage and assignments for the Tech and Shopping verticals. Tim has over 15 years of experience as a journalist and editor, and he has particular experience covering and testing consumer technology, smart home gadgets, and men’s grooming and style products. Previously, he was the Managing Editor and then Site Director of SPY.com, a men's product review and lifestyle website. As a writer for GQ, he covered everything from bull-riding competitions to the best Legos for adults, and he’s also contributed to publications such as The Daily Beast, Gear Patrol, and The Awl.
Tim studied print journalism at the University of Southern California. He currently splits his time between Brooklyn, NY and Charleston, SC. He's currently working on his second novel, a science-fiction book.
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