By Anna Piela
This Super Bowl Sunday night, I was sitting in my neighbor’s living room, watching the ads.
The He Gets Us campaign ads—the famous “Jesus ads”—are very well made. So well that, in fact, they confused me at first. The strong appeal of photos shot by Julia Fullerton-Batten underscores the radical message of feet washing by the people pictured in the photos.
“Foot Washing” ad spot for “He Gets Us” that played during Sunday nights Super Bowl LVIII. (Courtesy of He Gets Us)
A police officer washing the feet of a young Black man in a gritty alley is a clear reference to police violence directed at Black folks. A white farmer washing the feet of a Native American in a desert setting reminds me of centuries-long discrimination and mistreatment of Indigenous people at the hands of white settlers. A middle-aged woman washes the feet of a younger woman in front of a family planning clinic, with anti-abortion protesters in the background, reminding us of the violence that women who try to obtain an abortion face on the way to the procedure. A clergyman washes the feet of a young Black gay man.
Individuals representing the powerful groups in American society are shown executing these radical acts of humility towards the marginalized. This is what Jesus would have done, suggests the commercial, because he has always stood on the side of the oppressed. Essentially, this and the other ad in the 2024 campaign, “Who is My Neighbor?” are the basis for a PR campaign for Jesus whose reputation has been tarnished by those Christians who oppress(ed) others in his name.
The content of the campaign ticks all my boxes. And yet, I’m dubious.
Here, as always, context is key.
It would be easy to imagine that somehow Jesus beckons to us through the TV screen. The illusion is quickly shattered by the realization that in the capitalist economy things like Super Bowl commercials have a price, and nobody buys airtime without expectations of a return. “The spots will emphasize loving our neighbors like Jesus did, encouraging people to respect and serve each other,” a He Gets Us campaign spokesperson wrote. But who are “people”? Who is the campaign targeting, and, equally importantly, who is it funded by?
Funding
The campaign launched two years ago with a series of TV commercials, billboards, and digital ads. Its creator, the Michigan-based advertising agency BrandHaven claims a huge success of last year’s Super Bowl ads which cost $20 million. (The agency’s founder, Bill McKendry, has previously run campaigns for Focus on the Family and Alliance Defending Freedom, two organizations that have worked nationwide to oppose LGBTQ rights and overturn Roe v. Wade.)
The ad campaign is not “affiliated with any single individual, political position, church, or faith denomination,” according to the He Gets Us website. Hence, it follows that it does not target those already active in their traditions or denominations—rather, it is aimed at those unaffiliated and unchurched.
The language of the campaign mirrors the language of millennial and Gen Z activists who are among the least religious groups in the United States. Aspirational hashtags listed on the campaign’s website: #Relationships #Hope #Activist #Struggle #Love #Judgment #AboutUs #Justice #Forgiveness #Outrage #Reaction #Refugee #Inclusive #RealLife #Women seem to be borrowed from movements like BLM or reproductive rights campaigns. The staff at the agency clearly tried to address criticisms of last year’s He Gets Us ads that challenged the apolitical vision of Jesus that was presented.
The question is this: is an expensive ad campaign funded by people like David Green—the evangelical Christian founder of Hobby Lobby who is reportedly one of the campaign’s donors—the best way to bring the religiously disillusioned Gen Zs and millennials back to Jesus? In 2014, Hobby Lobby and Green gained a major win when the Supreme Court decided that Hobby Lobby and other “closely held corporations” could keep refusing to cover some or all types of birth control under health insurance policies due to religious objections. More than 60 million American workers were impacted by the decision.
Under new management
Although this year the He Gets Us campaign is “under new management,” having cut ties with the Servant Foundation, which financially supported Alliance Defending Freedom, the donors remain anonymous. This raises suspicions that while the management changed, the funding comes from similar places as before. None of this information is hard to find—major news organizations including the Associated Press focused on who pays for the ads. The discrepancy between the campaign’s progressive message and the donors’ and creators’ political sympathies is too clear.
Meme post by angry buni
The campaign certainly succeeded in attracting attention. Some conservative Christians criticized the campaign for being “too woke.” Many internet users were inspired to produce critical memes about it. Expressing dismay at the cost of the campaign, user angry buni posted an image of a grim Jesus with the caption, “Jesus finding out how much money was spent on a foot fetish Super Bowl commercial instead of feeding the poor.” Similar sentiment underpinned discussions about the campaign on Reddit. And while the conservatives’ criticism was to be expected, it doesn’t really matter—they are not the target audience. I believe that the meme authors, who are the audience, are saying that the campaign lacks authenticity. They can tell this because the priorities of the campaign are out of whack.
Today, walking in the way of Jesus may be exhausting and tedious. It happens away from the limelight and is rarely newsworthy. Each week, staff and volunteers at the Monte Vista Baptist Church in Phoenix, Arizona, clothe and feed 800 asylum seekers released from ICE detention centers. Or consider the work of Stitching Change, a non-profit that teaches refugee women sewing and business skills, or countless other non-profit organizations that work for social justice because of their religious mission. Groups like these could drive much more effective publicity for Jesus than He Gets Us. And they could certainly put $20 million to better use.
All work at The Commons is published under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Rev. Dr. Anna Piela
Rev. Dr. Anna Piela is a scholar of gender, Islam, and new media affiliated with the Department of Religion at Northwestern University. Rev. Dr. Piela is an ordained American Baptist USA minister who serves as the senior writer at American Baptist Home Mission Societies and the associate editor of The Christian Citizen magazine. She also serves as the co-associate regional minister for white and multicultural churches in the American Baptist Churches of Metro Chicago region.
Rev. Dr. Piela writes about Christianity, Islam, women in ministry, and interfaith issues for religion-focused media outlets, including the Religion News Service, Sojourners, The Revealer, and Religion and Politics. Her work has been cited in The New York Times, The Guardian, and The Muslim Girl. You can learn more about her on her website: annapiela.com
