The Best 2026 Super Bowl Commercial Had Me in a Puddle

Let's be honest. Every year on Super Bowl Sunday, I'm not here for the football. I'm here for the game day snacks, the halftime show and the commercials with budgets so high they could have been indie feature-length films. I've watched pretty much the entire lineup (35+ clips), and the best 2026 Super Bowl commercial had me in a total puddle at fade-out.

While the Seattle Seahawks faced off against the New England Patriots at Levi's Stadium in the Santa Clarita, California, I was leaking tears over Lady Gaga's collaboration with Rocket and Redfin. In it, the Grammy-winner sings a rendition of Mister Roger's classic "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" as viewers follow the stories of two people trying to find community in their neighborhoods. One is a cheerful man trying to befriend a next-door curmudgeon. The other is a girl who has recently moved away from her dad and is trying and, at first, failing, to make friends.

Over these montages—missed connections, a ravaging thunderstorm, lost dog, fallen tree—are Gaga's vocals, melancholic, haunting, hopeful, her mezzo-soprano rendered wistful as she asks, "It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood / A beautiful day for a neighbor / Would you be mine? Could you be mine?" And then, it becomes cautiously hopeful with "Since we're together, we might as well say / Would you be mine? / Could you be mine? /Won't you be my neighbor?"

To accompany the ad, Rocket and Redfin released a documentary-style, black-and-white video of Gaga workshopping the song, sung as a piano ballad, while the singer reflected on her own childhood memories of watching Mister Rogers. In a time where relationships feel fraught and AIs are treated like friends more than actual humans are, the power of community, kindness and childlike acceptance of others was a poignant reminder that it's in all of our power to be good neighbors.