Super Bowl, Big Ads — and a Small Word: Neighbor

 

Welcome to the Super Bowl — not just the championship of football, but the championship of advertising and marketing.

Every year companies spend extraordinary amounts of money to capture 30 to 60 seconds of American attention. The game is massive, but the audience is even bigger: well over 100 million viewers gather in one shared moment. No streaming algorithm. No niche targeting. One national living room.

That’s why the advertising matters. The Super Bowl isn’t where brands test ideas. It’s where they reveal what they believe Americans feel right now.

So when a mortgage company chooses to talk about neighbors instead of interest rates, that tells us something.

Who Are the Ads For?

Super Bowl ads don’t target a demographic in the traditional sense. They target a national mood.

Families watch together. Teenagers scroll while watching. Grandparents comment from recliners. Party guests talk during commercials but fall silent when one grabs attention. Advertisers are not speaking to buyers — they’re speaking to culture.

That’s why some years are funny years. Some years are patriotic years. Some years are nostalgic years. And some years, like 2026, are belonging years.

A single Super Bowl commercial costs millions of dollars before production even begins. Companies spend that money because the audience isn’t just large — it’s unified.

There are only a few moments left in American life where tens of millions watch the same story at the same time.

The Super Bowl is one of them.

So when a brand chooses its message, it’s not asking, “What sells today?” It’s asking, “What resonates right now?”

Why Rocket Chose Neighbors

This year Rocket Mortgage and Redfin aired a commercial titled “America Needs Neighbors Like You.”

The ad follows two teenage girls navigating a major life change and discovering connection through simple acts of kindness. The company described it as a story showing how “acts of kindness turn strangers into neighbors and neighborhoods make houses feel like home.”

That choice wasn’t random marketing poetry. It was strategic sociology.

Rocket’s own research found:

• Only about a quarter of Americans know most of their neighbors by name.
• Yet nearly seven in ten have helped a neighbor or received help in the past year .
• And moving creates social anxiety for many families and teenagers.

In other words: People want connection. They just don’t know how to start it.

On the surface, the ad fits the company perfectly. A mortgage lender isn’t just selling a loan — it’s selling stability. The company even says homeownership works because rooted people “show up for one another.”

But something bigger is happening.

If the goal were simply brand alignment, the message could have been: “Buy a home. Build wealth.” Instead the message was: “Know your neighbors.”

That’s not a financial claim. That’s a social claim.

And companies don’t spend Super Bowl money on social claims unless they believe the audience already feels it.

Is the Need for Connection Getting Through?

For years, conversations about loneliness lived mostly in research papers and health reports. Now it’s in advertising. That’s a cultural shift.

Advertising works by mirroring aspirations back to people. A car ad doesn’t show transportation — it shows freedom. A phone ad doesn’t show hardware — it shows relationships.

So when a housing company centers its biggest advertisement of the year on neighboring, it suggests something profound: Connection has become a mainstream desire again.

Not just friendship. Not just community programs. But the smallest unit of belonging — the person next door.

What This Says About the Neighboring Movement

For decades, neighboring was treated as nostalgia — a memory of front porches and simpler times. Something nice, but outdated. Now it’s appearing in national advertising during the most expensive broadcast in the country. That means neighboring has moved from sentimental value → social need → cultural relevance.

Businesses pay attention to behavior before institutions do. They track emotion through consumer patterns. And what they’re seeing is clear: Americans don’t just want a house. They want a place where they are known.

The ad even frames the home as emotional infrastructure — a setting where belonging grows, not just an asset that appreciates.

That idea sits at the heart of the modern neighboring movement: communities aren’t built by proximity, but by practiced care.

The Super Bowl has always reflected national identity: Military tributes after crises; Humor during stable periods; and Nostalgia during uncertainty.

And now? Relationship. Not big national unity. Small everyday unity.

The scale has shrunk — from country to block. That may be the most important shift of all.

People no longer trust connection at the societal level first. They rebuild it locally first.

The Quiet Takeaway

Rocket didn’t run a commercial about mortgages. They ran a commercial about belonging — and trusted that belonging sells the mortgage.

That reversal matters.

It means connection is no longer a side benefit of living somewhere. It is becoming the product people actually want.

And when one of the most expensive ads in America tells viewers, “America needs neighbors like you,” it signals something bigger than marketing strategy.

It signals cultural recognition.

The neighboring conversation isn’t niche anymore. It’s entering mainstream awareness.

Not through policy. Not through programs. But through storytelling. And perhaps that’s fitting — because neighboring has never really been a project. It’s a story people decide to live in together.

Even, apparently, during the Super Bowl.

This is not the first time an advertisement about neighbors aired during the Super Bowl. For other examples from 2024 and 2023 see my blog posts here and here.

WRITTEN BY

David L. Burton

Take the Engaged Neighbor pledge and become part of a movement! The pledge outlines five categories and 20 principles to guide you toward becoming an engaged neighbor. Sign the pledge at https://nomoregoodneighbors.com. Individuals who take the pledge do get special invitations to future events online and in person. Contact the blog author, David L. Burton via email at dburton541@yahoo.com.