What's the Problem with "He Gets Us"?
Today I have a new article up at The Gospel Coalition, taking a look at the “He Gets Us” ad campaign. After watching several of their Super Bowl ads, I think the campaign’s good intentions can’t overcome the impressionistic, unhelpful assumptions in the messaging. What’s more, the campaign seems to try to appeal to a particular demographic—one that pairs openness to Jesus with progressive ideas of love—that is shrinking, not flourishing.
Here’s an excerpt:
“He Gets Us” isn’t without its strengths. These cleverly produced ads work well in the digital era. I have no doubt they’ll succeed in overcoming some viewers’ entrenched biases against Christianity. There’s profound truth in these bite-size ads. And the campaign’s organizers offer resources and volunteers through the website that undoubtedly have led and will lead to true conversions.
But despite the tremendous financial effort, “He Gets Us” seems unlikely to make a lasting impression on viewers. Even if its aesthetics work, the messaging is dated. The audience the campaign seems to want—religiously open, politically progressive, and so on—isn’t a flourishing demographic. The “vibe shift” of openness to Christianity seems right now to be facilitated at least in part by a rejection of the kind of binaries the ad campaign traffics in. Many are asking uncomfortable questions of liberalism: whether abortion clinics need scrutiny instead of sympathy and whether Pride parades are misguided instead of misunderstood.
For all its contemporary feel, “He Gets Us” seems like nostalgia for a bygone religious era. The American church may be entering an era in which fewer people ask for Jesus to “get” them, and more people ask him to save them: from the ruins of self, the lies of modernity, and the despair of unbelief. In this cultural moment, Christians can reach for much more than impressionistic images and music. We can reach for truth.
You can read the entire article here.
I appreciate the article, as always, but this time I'll have to respectfully disagree. Since their first broadcast, I've seen the Christian angst surrounding them as misunderstanding who the commercials are intended for. I've understood the target audience as two-fold: first, for those being told by cultural Christianity that their particular sin is unredeemable. The commercials were never intended to be doctrinally robust - they're a more artistic version of the "John 3:16" signs we see at sporting events. Maybe they could help get a conversation started between a Christ-follower and someone who assumes that I don't think salvation could exist for sinners like them.
But more significantly, I've seen the commercials as a rebuke to those who project certain sins as unredeemable - those who may see MAGA Republican politics as next to godliness ("God Bless the USA" Bible, anyone?). Perhaps these commercials are a modern take on the parable of the Good Samaritan: hey Pharisees, you aren't as spiritual as you think you are. What are the greatest commandments? And who is your neighbor? And if you aren't loving them, what does that say about your faith?
That said, I don't know that I necessarily agree with these approaches as effective means of sharing Christ given the amount of money they cost. But honestly, when I've had unbelieving friends in the same room watching the Super Bowl, they've made for some good evangelistic conversation pieces. And maybe that's the point.
The article is excellent. Your analysis of the problems and shortcomings of the ad are spot on. But of course, there's only so much an ad can do. If it stimulates interest and leads to further investigation of Christianity by unbelievers, it is still worthwhile.