From the people behind the He Gets Us campaign, these two ads appeared during two different halves of Super Bowl LVII.
You can find more of their ads here.
Not everybody loves the campaign. From CNN:
Certain details about the “He Gets Us” ads have set off alarm bells among young people and those skeptical of religion, two groups the campaign is specifically trying to attract.
Some of the campaign’s major donors, and its holding company, have ties to conservative political aims and far-right ideologies that appear at odds with the campaign’s inclusive messaging.
The chain of influence behind “He Gets Us” can be followed through public records and information on the campaign’s own site. The campaign is a subsidiary of The Servant Foundation, also known as the Signatry.
According to research compiled by Jacobin, a left-leaning news outlet, The Servant Foundation has donated tens of millions to the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal group. The ADF has been involved in several legislative pushes to curtail LGBTQ rights and quash non-discrimination legislation in the Supreme Court.
CNN has reached out to the Servant Foundation for comment.
While donors who support “He Gets Us” can choose to remain anonymous, Hobby Lobby co-founder David Green claims to be a big contributor to the campaign’s multi-million-dollar coffers. Hobby Lobby has famously been at the center of several legal controversies, including the support of anti-LGBTQ legislation and a successful years-long legal fight that eventually led to the Supreme Court allowing companies to deny medical coverage for contraception on the basis of religious beliefs.
UPDATE: A good analysis from America’s Jim McDermott:
Many of the “He Gets Us” spots miss the mark, in my opinion, because, like many of us, they try to sell Jesus, when they should be trying to sell what Jesus sold: a generous and merciful way of life. Jesus doesn’t need to be “reintroduced.” Trying to make him seem relevant to a media-savvy younger generation only makes Christianity seem that much more out of touch and cringe. The fact that each ad ends on the word “Jesus,” with the “us” highlighted dramatically in yellow, as though to say we are a subset of Jesus, is so overwrought and goofy I can just about hear my nephews and nieces in the Midwest shrieking with laughter from here. As people have since pointed out online, You’re trying too hard, boomer.
But at the Super Bowl, “He Gets Us” got it right, or at least tried to, anyway. The point of being a Christian isn’t to make more Christians. It’s to work toward that kingdom of friendship and mercy that Jesus himself was building. And anything that helps inspire others to do that is worth paying attention to and learning from.
