In October 2022, the national media began to take note of an advertising campaign no one saw coming. It’s more of a movement: “He Gets Us.” For the past two-and-a-half years, Jesus has become a savvy marketer. Super Bowl LIX didn’t stop his advertising budget either, as the grassroots Holy Spirit outreach hit the Big Game for the third consecutive year. Do you catch it? It was, well…greatness!
Johnny Cash. Old Johnny Cash sings a 1980s New Wave gospel classic by Depeche Mode called “Personal Jesus.” It is sixty seconds of slow-paced retro gold with a penetrating message: “What is greatness?”
The message is completely strategic. The term “GOAT” is no longer an honorific for the acronymic athletes who fit that bill. You know? Michael Jordan in basketball, Wayne Gretzky in hockey, Tom Brady in football, and Michael Phelps in the Olympics. These are the “greatest of all time” in their respective sports. Taking the evangelism high road, “He Gets Us” asks us all to reconsider that exclamation.
It was a dynamic ad with compelling images that told their own stories–each of them highlighted acts of service in the world around us. Whether that place is on Aisle 18 in a grocery store or during a 5K during a Pride parade, when God took the form of humanity, he did so to be human where he was least expected to be. That’s largely the premise of what precisely Jesus gets–it’s us today, among current trends, struggling with current events, and empathetic to what we’re dealing with currently.
Do you get it? Is the mission of “He Gets Us” crystal clear or more murky brownish because of the controversy the Super Bowl LIX ad created?
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He Gets Us Ad: More Lamentation, Less Revelation
Like the previous two Super Bowl ads, this He Gets Us commercial is strewn with powerful images, each emoting suggestive feelings of pride, support, and love. The commercial focuses on forcing the vantage point upon “Jesus showed us what greatness really is.” Regretfully, like the other two, some crusty Christians took to social media saying that the ad highlights many things people need to know about Jesus, yet there are other important things it does not.
For the previous two years (see below or linked here and here), the nonprofit organization funded four separate commercials, each costing approximately $5.5 to $7 million. When a huge consumer-packaged good, alcoholic, or car brand spends that much money on Super Bowl ads, no one says a word except whether they like the graphics or not. When a Christian organization spends money on a Super Bowl ad, people suggest it’s an abuse of funding because there are other more altruistic reasons to spend that money, like world hunger, supporting the homeless, or natural disasters.
Those reasons are crucial, and Christians have responded to them in droves. Yet they have another that is equally important for humanity: the Great Commission.
“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20 HCSB)
Crosswalk.com spoke to Ken Caldwell, CEO of ComeNear.com, which is the parent company of He Gets Us. They asked him about the grief he’s read online.
Crosswalk: This year’s Super Bowl commercial focused on one theme: What is Greatness? Could you explain the focus of the commercial and why you think it’s important to spotlight it in contemporary America?
Calwell: “What is Greatness?” will invite us all to consider the definition of greatness Jesus spoke and modeled, the contrast to how culture often defines greatness today, and what that might mean for each of us. Greatness as defined by our culture — through focusing on wealth, achievement, status, and power — is a stark contrast to what Jesus defined as greatness. We want to create moments and invite reflection about the impact of surprising love, hope, compassion, and service toward one another, which we think are as relevant today as ever.
The core reason for ComeNear.com is evangelism. It’s not Super Bowl highlights or even a higher place on some haughty advertising list. It’s why Billy Graham held crusades in baseball stadiums, not some creaky old church with five rows of pews. It is why Christian television reaches out from Tallahassee to Tel Aviv. It’s why Jesus wanted us to know so we could teach others who He is.
The ads are purposely countercultural. Any time a movement for world change has taken place, culture has changed. The Harlem Renaissance to the 60s, Vietnam to #MeToo, and Civil Rights to “Woke” have all been related to a need for change. Isn’t that why Jesus came to rescue us in the first place? Change.
Maybe the ads we see during the Super Bowl is doing the same thing? Maybe that’s what HeGetsUs is attempting to create when people least expect it. Change. It’s what we need to do.
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