He Gets Us: Jesus Advertisements During the Super Bowl Highlight Christ’s Love, Generate Controversy
In today’s newsletter:
- He Gets Us: Jesus Advertisements During the Super Bowl Highlight Christ’s Love, Generate Controversy
- Be My Valentine, Market Watch, and Super Bowl Commercials
- How to Have a Successful Marriage and a Thriving Career – Common Mistakes to Avoid
Fade in.
We see a young man washing his father’s feet as soulful music plays, and the camera zooms in thoughtfully. We see a police officer washing someone’s feet in an alleyway. A woman washing her friend’s feet. And the images keep coming.
Someone lowers themselves to the position of a servant, especially in contexts where you often expect tension or opposition, and the person receiving the foot washing looks on in something less than bewilderment but more than understanding – they are touched.
“Jesus didn’t teach hate,” the ad says at the end of the spot. “He washed feet.” And then it says, “He gets us. All of us. Jesus.” Finally, HeGetsUs.com/LoveYourNeighbor comes onscreen, and then it’s over.
Simple, to the point, and a powerful depiction of Christian service, humility, and love, following Jesus’ example in John 13, when He says, “Know that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.”
Beautiful, right?
This ad spot ran for 60 seconds during the Super Bowl, and a related 15-second ad titled “Who is My Neighbor” ran later in the game, costing a total of $17.5 million. In the aftermath, people have been wondering and discussing online – who was behind this advertisement? What are they getting at? And what’s their agenda?
Let me tell you.
He Gets Us
This organization ran an ad last year as well, also during the Super Bowl, as part of a larger campaign. This year, the non-profit has changed hands but maintains some of the same donors under the name “Come Near.” Their deep-pocketed donors include David Green, the founder of Hobby Lobby, and others who have not made themselves known. Ken Calwell, former CMO of Compassion International, now leads the organization.
“How did the story of Jesus, the world’s greatest love story, get twisted into a tool to judge, harm, and divide?” their website asks. “How do we remind people that the story of Jesus belongs to everyone? These questions are the beating heart of He Gets Us.”
It’s a branding effort – but a somewhat unusual one. The founders got together and studied demographic and survey data, conducted interviews, and discovered that people were hurt, divided, and lost. They wanted to show Jesus to the world in a simple, pure way and try to foster healing from much of the hurt and division tearing our society apart.
Their website gently guides people through fundamental lessons of Christianity: loving your neighbor, not being a slave to riches, saying hard things that need to be said, and forgiveness. They provide Bible reading plans and low-barrier devotional studies. They provide a portal to help people find a Christian community near them so they can fellowship and find further instruction, support, and healing.
So, perhaps unsurprisingly, the internet went berserk.
The Reaction
In the secular world, some mocked the ads or didn’t understand the symbolism they alluded to, calling them a “Jesus Foot Fetish.” Others wanted to remind people that the Alliance Defending Freedom, a very conservative legal advocacy group, has in the past (and possibly still currently) helped to fund “He Gets Us.”. To some, this was seen as offensive since they advocate against abortion and radical gender theory being taught in schools. Most likely, others were intrigued, but only time – and ‘He Gets Us’ internal metrics – will tell. There were a few jokes and a few activists getting hot and bothered, but perhaps there wasn’t too much pushback there.
Christian and conservative circles, however, went through the roof.
Justin Peters, a popular reformed preacher, posts, “The people behind the ‘He Gets Us’ campaign are ashamed of the real Jesus. They are ashamed of the Gospel.”
Matt Walsh, a conservative commentator, said that “at best,” the ad was “pointless” and “does more harm than good.”
An account on X called “Lizzie Reformed” sums up much of the sentiment this way:
“In case some people still aren’t getting it (as we can see they aren’t), the goal of the ‘He gets us’ ad wasn’t Jesus at all. The goal was social justice and political advancement, for starters, but mainly, it was to call every single Bible-believing Christian who isn’t afraid to speak the truth in love a bigot. This was an antichrist dressed up in a wool coat. They do not want anything to do with real Christians who fear God and preach the whole Bible, including parts that offend people. They wouldn’t wash our feet, we don’t fit the agenda.”
Defenses were few and far between, or so it seemed.
“Am I the only conservative Christian who didn’t totally hate the ‘He Gets Us’ ad?” posts conservative commentator Michael Knowles on X.
Or, if you dare, wade into the comments section on this conservative Facebook group’s post that went viral – and quickly gained much criticism for saying the ad was “fine.”
Some of the more measured criticisms included worries that the ‘He Gets Us’ commercial leaves out a call to repentance, which is central to the gospel.
But others have pointed out that calling us to overcome our petty differences, to still love one another even when there are significant differences, and to humble ourselves to the place of a servant in the name of Christ – is a call to repentance indeed.
If controversy is good for a message’s reach, ‘He Gets Us’ hits the jackpot.
Conclusions
It is a strange circumstance when an advertisement that reaches tens of millions with a message of Christ’s love and humility is roundly panned in many Christian circles. But be that as it may, time will prove that the “He Gets Us” campaign is exactly what it presents itself as. A smart, business-minded approach to spreading the gospel. Artists use their art, preachers preach, and businesspeople raise money and do an ad campaign that will continue forward from here, consisting of outreach events that serve the needy, give food to the hungry, and do so with a smile in the name of Jesus.
“Jesus understands us,” Hobby Lobby founder David Green says. “He loves who we hate. I think we have to let the public know and create a movement.”
“‘He Gets Us’ Super Bowl Jesus Commercial Angers Both Left and Right,” reads the headline from the BBC. And if that isn’t a sure sign that they’re doing something right, I don’t know what is.
INDUSTRY INSIGHTS
Be My Valentine, Market Watch, and Super Bowl Commercials
Be My Valentine
Valentine’s Day spending is expected to very slightly dip compared with last year, with a total of $25.8 billion changing hands on the day. Roughly $6.2 billion will be spent on jewelry and $2.2 billion on flowers. The $2.3 billion that will be spent on flowers accounts for 30% of total flower sales for the entire year. Many couples will head to restaurants to celebrate the holiday, making Valentine’s Day the second busiest day of the year for the restaurant industry. French food, paella, and sushi top the charts for most romantic cuisines to the American audience on this day. If you’re curious about the origins of this romantic holiday and the Christian Saint that gives the celebration its name, click here.
Market Watch
The S&P 500 closed above 5,000 for the first time ever on Friday, as the three major indices posted their fifth straight week of gains. The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate continues its steady climb upward, sitting at 7.37% as of Monday. Unemployment has held steady at 3.7% for the past few months as wages finally begin to experience some real growth. Gold continues to enjoy high prices, hovering near the nominal all-time high of December, and, after a month of flagging momentum and falling valuation, crypto blue chips Bitcoin and Ethereum seem to have recovered, as BTC now sits above $48,000 and ETH digs in at around $2,500. Amid a resilient US market, troubles in Europe, and a crisis in China, experts are warning that international markets are “decoupling.”
Super Bowl Commercials
The Kansas City Chiefs defended their championship title at Super Bowl LVIII, beating the San Francisco 49ers in overtime. For three-quarters of viewers, however, they were just as invested in watching the commercials. Air time during the Super Bowl is already valuable because it tends to be the most watched broadcast of the year, and companies are willing to pay a premium for the sheer number of eyeballs and the fact that more people actually watch the ads. This year, a 30-second ad spot cost $7 million, and, in case you missed it, Slate gives a rundown of the best and the worst ads of the night. This year’s commercials leaned heavily into celebrity cameos, goofiness, and a LOT of Temu ads. For the second year in a row, viewers saw an advertisement from the Christian advocacy group ‘He Gets Us’ featuring a series of images of at-odds groups washing each other’s feet, emphasizing Jesus’ teaching of love.
Sunday School
Q. What do you call the passage of Scripture, in Deuteronomy 6:4-9, that begins with the words, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One”?
A. The “Shema Yisrael,” which is the beginning of the passage in Hebrew. “Shema” means hear/obey.
Dave was never heard from again.
TIPS & TRICKS
How to Have a Successful Marriage and a Thriving Career – Common Mistakes to Avoid
I sat down with best-selling relationship authors Bill and Pam Farrel to continue our discussion on how to run a successful business (or work a demanding job) while seeing to the needs of your marriage.
Bill and Pam Farrel have been married for 44 years, and when they tell you that, Bill will be sure to add, “And we still like each other.” Bill is calm, confident, and always listening. Pam is energetic, enthusiastic, and ready to jump in with ideas and encouragement. In terms of temperament, they are very different, but they use their differences to fill in each other’s gaps, dipping in and out of each other’s conversation like an easy dance. What is so often a source of conflict among married couples is a strength of the Farrels, a strength they have leveraged into 50 books on relationships and marriage, as well as a widely held respect for their opinions and advice.
Bill and Pam have not only been married for over four decades, they have been in business together for nearly as long. They not only teach good material on how to win in marriage and work at the same time, but they’re living examples.
“What are some common mistakes that couples make when trying to navigate work/life balance?” I ask.
“When marriages fall apart,” Pam begins, with conviction in her voice, “it’s one of two things: Somebody did something selfish, or somebody did something stupid. Being selfish is not the way we were designed to live. We were designed to live in a community, to be connected, and that should be a higher priority than getting my way. But when you start getting all about me and ‘the world should revolve around me,’ that’s going to push every relationship away.”
Bill nods as she goes on.
“As for the ‘stupid’ part… I’ve heard people say, ‘Oh yeah, I reached out to someone I used to date in high school.’ Then we’ll say, ‘Why did you think that was going to turn out well for you?’ Because it doesn’t. Or people make decisions that sabotage their relationship, like getting addicted to drugs or alcohol, shopping like crazy, or gambling.”
But it can be more mundane things that can cause problems as well.
“Some of the mistakes people make,” Bill adds, “are making work more important than their relationships, but eventually, that catches up. My Dad had an impressive career.”
“He was a rocket scientist!” Pam interjects. “He put men on the moon and was involved with all the space shuttles. He was brilliant.”
“And my dad lived to be 92 years old,” Bill continues without missing a beat. “In the last decade of his life, nobody visited him.”
“Only us,” Pam agreed. “And our kids.”
“So what he had at the end of his life was family. And people who make work more important than their family usually end up losing both.”
It’s an interesting and haunting idea, which Bill and Pam demonstrate poignantly. Relational turmoil usually creates turmoil at the office as well, and it gets much easier to drop the ball, show up late, be distracted, or get into fights with coworkers or board members when your marriage is on the rocks. At the end of the day, you aren’t doing your career any favors by sabotaging your marriage or vice versa.
“The second mistake people make is they live in the past,” Bill continues. “Today is probably hard work, but when you look back to ten years ago, you think that people were more proud of you, people thought you were attractive, funny, easy to spend time with… It’s easy to look back and say, ‘I want to reconnect with that life because this life is too hard.’”
Pam nods knowingly. I didn’t ask, but I imagine this kind of nostalgia for the past comes up a lot when they counsel married couples. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence – or ten years ago.
“The third mistake that people make on a regular basis,” Bill says, “is that they stop growing as a person, and their life keeps getting bigger, but they aren’t stronger and more equipped.”
“We have to keep getting stronger as a person so that we have the skills to manage success,” Pam agrees. “We have to keep growing. Sometimes, it can be as easy as reading good emails, signing up for that webinar, being part of an online community with values, or gaining new skills by going to training and conferences – and it’s fun to go to those conferences with your spouse if you can. You can make it work and play, which is nice.”
“Don’t lose your curiosity,” Bill says.
Bill and Pam Farrel are best-selling relationship authors of over 50 books and sought-after conference speakers. To learn more, visit their website, www.love-wise.com, or check out their book Men Are like Waffles; Women Are like Spaghetti for a more in-depth guide on how to succeed in your marriage.
Quick Hits
- In-N-Out Burger takes unprecedented step, closing California location amidst persistent crime concerns.
- SEC advises Apple to take into account free speech resolution proposed by Christian group.
- NRB appeals to Supreme Court to prevent Biden administration’s from censoring views on social media.
- Auntie Anne’s founder attributes healing from life of suffering to living by James 5:16.
- CNBC recommends strategies for paying off credit cards amid record levels of consumer debt.
- Fans were startled by the price of food at Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas – a hotdog was $13, a beer was $17, and nachos were $60.
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