The "He Gets Us" campaign has responded to New York Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s criticism of the campaign's Super Bowl Ads.
“Something tells me Jesus would *not* spend millions of dollars on Super Bowl ads to make fascism look benign,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted Sunday night.
Something tells me Jesus would *not* spend millions of dollars on Super Bowl ads to make fascism look benign
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 13, 2023
During Super Bowl LVII, "He Gets Us" aired two ads, one called "Be Childlike" and another called "Love Your Enemies." The "Be Childlike" ad features images of a child holding an umbrella over a cat stuck in the rain, a child wiping away the tears of a man crying on television, and two children of different races running toward one another and hugging each other. After flashing through the images, the message "Jesus didn’t want us to act like adults" appears on the screen. The ad ends with the words "He gets us. All of us" popping up. The song "If I Could See the World" by Patsy Cline plays throughout the commercial.
According to The Christian Post, the "Love Your Enemies" ad shared numerous images of people fighting or arguing with one another, including a picture of a COVID-19 lockdown protest and one of violent ANTIFA militants.
"Jesus loved the people we hate," the ad reads, adding the phrase, "He gets us. All of Us."
Jason Vanderguard, a spokesman for the ad campaign, responded to the recent backlash.
"Our research shows that many people’s only exposure to Jesus is through Christians who reflect him imperfectly, and too often in ways that create a distorted or incomplete picture of his radical compassion and love for others," Vanderguard told Fox News Digital. "We believe it’s more important now than ever for the real, authentic Jesus to be represented in the public marketplace as he is in the Bible."
"The goal is that the two commercials will not only inspire those who may be skeptical of Christianity to ask questions and learn more about Jesus, but also encourage Christians to live out their faith even better and exhibit the same confounding love and forgiveness Jesus modeled," he continued. "Instead of responding to divisiveness in anger or avoiding conflict altogether, Jesus demonstrated how we can and should show confounding love and respect to one another."
"On multiple occasions, Jesus used the term 'childlike' to refer to a humble and trusting attitude," Vanderguard said of the first ad, noting that "Christians often refer to their faith as childlike, being humble enough to place one's trust in a power greater than self."
Regarding the second ad, Vanderguard asked, "What could possibly be louder and more powerful than hate? Love can. But not just any love. Confounding love. Unconditional love. Sacrificial love. The love we see in Jesus."
"What if we tried to love our enemies the way Jesus loved his? How would it change the tenor of our conflicts and our conversations?
Jesus "cares about our problems because he has experienced them," Vanguard added. “We believe that investing in efforts to ensure more people consider his life and movement as an inspiration for their own, will, in turn, help improve the lives of those listening — and begin to create the kind of cascade of love Jesus himself sought to generate.”
The He Gets Us ads were widely positively received by the American public. As Christian Headlines previously reported, the USA Today Ad Meter, which measures the popularity of Super Bowl ads through panelist votes, ranked the "Childlike" commercial as the eighth highest-rated Super Bowl ad this year. The "Love Your Enemies" ad was the 15th highest-rated Super Bowl ad.
Related:
AOC Slams Super Bowl Ads about Jesus’ Love: The Ads Make 'Fascism Look Benign'
Super Bowl Fans Loved the He Gets Us 'Jesus Ads': USA Today Ad Meter
Super Bowl Broadcast Will Include TV Ads about Jesus and His 'Confounding Love and Forgiveness'
Photo courtesy: ©He Gets Us, used with permission.
Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer and content creator. He is a contributing writer for CrosswalkHeadlines and the host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast devoted to sound doctrine and biblical truth. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.
