“The Chosen” creator Dallas Jenkins took to social media this week to voice support for the He Gets Us ad campaign amid a swirl of criticism surrounding a Super Bowl commercial depicting apparent culture war enemies washing each other’s feet.
“Jesus didn’t teach hate,” the commercial declares. “He washed feet.”
The commercial elicited strong responses from Christians and non-Christians alike. Some Christian leaders expressed outrage, characterizing the ad as “heretical” and “apostasy.” Conversely, those who are unfamiliar with the story of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet expressed bewilderment, as one news outlet reported, “Super Bowl viewers baffled by ‘foot fetish’ commercial.”
He Gets Us, which is managed by the nonprofit organization Come Near, was launched in 2022 with the goal of spending $1 billion in marketing and advertising to spark interest in Jesus and the Christian faith.
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The campaign previously ran ads during the 2023 Super Bowl, which also drew criticism. Some Christian leaders have expressed discomfort with He Gets Us spending money on advertising that could be spent on humanitarian efforts, while others take exception with the campaign’s depiction of Jesus, which they have characterized as soft on sin.
A common theme of the criticism surrounding this year’s Super Bowl commercial has been what some perceive as the implication that washing someone’s feet is tantamount to condoning their sins, including abortion or immoral sexual behavior.
In the week that has followed the Super Bowl, some online creators have produced parody remakes of the commercial. One features images of people who famously experienced dramatic conversions to Christianity, including tattoo artist Kat Von D and writer Rosaria Butterfield, and changed the tagline from “He gets us” to “he saves us.”
Another, produced by Christian satire site The Babylon Bee, is titled “Satan: He Gets Us” and emphasizes that Satan “affirms everything about you.”
Nevertheless, the goal of the He Gets Us campaign is to generate conversations, get Bible resources into the hands of seekers, and connect people with local churches—and it seems to be accomplishing those ends.
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He Gets Us spokesperson Greg Miller told ChurchLeaders that the He Gets Us website had more than 715,000 visits in the first 18 hours following the Super Bowl. Miller also said that the average time users were spending on the site doubled and “thousands of individuals took action to Read More via the reading plans available online or requested to be connected to a group through Alpha.”
