He Gets Us: Lost Opportunities

I didn’t intend to address the He Gets Us campaign here. It’s bad enough that every time I log into Reddit, I’m bombarded by He Gets Us promotions. But after their Superbowl commercial, I’ve gotten a few questions from friends about my thoughts on it. I’m a theological marketing guy – more accurately I’m a theology nerd who accidentally does marketing – so I sit at some kind of weird intersection in this matter. That forced me to think about He Gets Us when I would prefer to ignore it, so I figured I’d toss down my ideas here.

First, the Photos

I think the photos look great and they obviously stirred up conversations. Julia Fullerton-Batten is an amazing artist and I encourage you to explore her work more deeply. I’m kind of a sucker for post-modernist romanticism so a lot of her work is right up my alley. The message is accessible. I know there is a lot of concern that it seems like white cis-gendered people are doing the foot washing, but if you spend some more time with the photos, I think it’s not immediately clear who is a Christian or not or if that’s even the point of the compositions. Because of the troubling involvement of Hobby Lobby CEO David Green, I can understand that many viewers are assuming that the photos are trying to say, “hey, you’re a gay liberal and thus sinful, but we love you anyway.” If that is in fact the message, then just ick. I’d prefer to give Fullerton-Batten more credit than that and let the photos speak without pretext. Jesus washed the disciples’ feet. There isn’t a good guy or a bad guy in that story, it models service. I can get behind a message that Jesus is inclusive and is a servant leader.

Unfortunately, beyond the photos, I mistrust the campaign for several reasons.

The Money

I haven’t seen a definitive answer to how much was spent on the Superbowl campaign, but the estimates I’ve read seem to track around $20 million. Now it’s estimated that BetMGM spent $50 million, so you may think He Gets Us was a bargain. Let me give you another perspective. Tri-Lakes Cares, our local service organization for food and financial assistance, served 853 households in northern El Paso County last year with just under $2 million in program expenses. What would better embody Jesus’ message? A commercial or supporting 10 such communities for a year? Further, He Gets Us is planning to spend $1 billion in total on these types of campaigns. That seems utterly unchristian to me, and it raises questions in my mind about the true motives of the campaign.

Who is the Audience?

Who among Superbowl viewers hasn’t heard of Jesus and likely already made up their mind about Christianity? I think the reason that people are not embracing the faith is that they associate Christianity with the intolerance, exclusion and American exceptionalism of people like David Green and The Servant Foundation. Who is the real audience? I would love for anyone associated with the campaign to say something radical like, “the campaign is aimed at existing Christians to get them to embrace Jesus’ teaching of acceptance and love.” I’m not holding my breath. It feels more like the group is trying to rebrand Jesus into a hip influencer rather than get people excited about real inclusivity.

Show, Don’t Tell

Christ taught action, not words. I love writing, talking and debating about theology, but theology never saved anyone. Organizations like Tri-Lakes Cares save people. If you want to turn people on to Christianity, act like Christ. Demonstrate love, compassion and service. Imagine if He Gets Us spent $19 million on any charitable activity and $1M on some PR activity around it. That would make a difference and based on the 853 families Tri-Lakes Cares served last year, it would send the message of Christ to over 8,000 families directly in addition to good press. Now imagine the planned $1 billion for the total messaging of He Gets Us. That could fund a year of programs for 500 service organizations – with the ability to impact more families than live in the United States. When someone posts their new $399 gold sneakers on the socials, I wonder why they didn’t buy $40 shoes like the rest of us and donate the other $360. Then sure, post a video of that donation on Instagram instead of the shoes. But when a Christian organization misappropriates this much money, I’m sickened. It’s utterly gross.

Inspiring a Dialogue on Faith and Action

I’m just one dude blogging about faith. The issues surrounding He Gets Us are quite complex, thus driving a lot of debate. I hope that the campaign really does drive some open and respectful dialogue around matters of social justice, even if the backers would seem to want something different based on the other activities they’ve supported. You need to live your life and let God speak to you where God speaks to you. If you find the campaign uplifting, more power to you.

I would like to believe – in good Christian humility – that the He Gets Us campaign is well-meaning if misguided. It’s misguided because it is focused on marketing and not action. It has very questionable financial backers that make me mistrust the message and purpose of the campaigns. There are plenty of marginalized populations who need and deserve our radical hospitality, justice and love, so I don’t hate some of the images in these campaigns that at least superficially reflect these authentic Christian values. But Jesus wants us to create justice through concrete action that heals communities, not blow a bunch of dough on cool-looking advertisements.


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