New ‘He Gets Us’ Super Bowl Ad Targets American Materialism, Points Viewers to Jesus
Michael Foust
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By Michael Foust, Crosswalk.com
The He Gets Us campaign is back with another Super Bowl ad this year, inviting viewers to wrestle with a question Christian theologians and apologists have asked for centuries: Why don’t the material things of this world bring lasting satisfaction?
It will be the fourth consecutive Super Bowl broadcast with a He Gets Us commercial, but the first one that directly challenges the world’s materialism and consumerism – ironically, the very things many other Super Bowl ads will implicitly celebrate.
The 60-second ad opens with a young girl surrounded by dolls as a voiceover declares, “The one who dies with the most toys wins.” From there, the commercial moves through a rapid series of scenes: a teenager snapping a mirror selfie, vacationers reveling in Las Vegas, partiers dancing beneath fireworks, male bodybuilders flexing on stage, and a young man sitting intently in front of a computer screen. Throughout the ad, voices insist we must become “more beautiful” and pursue “more pleasure.”
The ad then closes with a quiet moment of introspection, with a smiling young woman standing alone in an open field, taking in the vast sky and the scenic hills surrounding her.
The final words of the ad declare: “There’s more to life than more. What if Jesus shows us how to find it?” It then guides viewers to HeGetsUs.com.
Tyler Johnson, chief impact officer of Come Near – the organization that produces and manages the ads – says the commercial’s message is rooted in Scripture.
The ad, titled “More,” also will air during the Winter Olympics and FIFA World Cup.
“It comes out of the idea that culture is telling us we constantly have to get more and more and more,” Johnson told Crosswalk Headlines. He contrasted the world’s materialistic message with the “undergirding reality of Romans 12:1-2 of ‘Don't be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.’”
Since its launch, the He Gets Us campaign has generated nearly 10 billion video views, driven more than 56 million users to its website, and sparked roughly 2 million Google searches about Jesus over the past few years, according to data from Come Near.
The He Gets Us website functions as a starting point for people who want to learn more about Jesus, pointing visitors toward local churches and offering articles and videos. The site, for example, includes The Bible Project videos that explore the life of Christ, including His death and resurrection.
Johnson addressed two of the most common objections to the ads. One objection is that the ads don’t include the full gospel.
“It's not that we would be against that, but the approach we're taking is just a different approach,” he said, noting that the full explanation of the gospel is on the website. “And we really are trying to take cues from the authentic Jesus, and it's very rare that Jesus ever had a full moment of what we would call … a Romans-road type of approach.”
The ads, he said, are created to “incite curiosity, to make people take one step closer” to Jesus.
Another objection centers on cost – a single Super Bowl commercial costs millions of dollars. In response, Johnson posed his own question: “What is it worth to raise the public conversation about Jesus?”
The goal, he said, is for viewers to enjoy an “amazing ad” and only at the end realize it has been pointing to Jesus all along.
“It then creates this moment where somebody begins to contemplate or create conversations around Jesus, and that's really what we're trying to do, is raise the public conversation about Jesus as far and broadly as we possibly can,” he said.
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Photo Credit: ©He Gets Us
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
Listen to Michael's Podcast! He is the host of Crosswalk Talk, a podcast where he talks with Christian movie stars, musicians, directors, and more. Hear how famous Christian figures keep their faith a priority in Hollywood and discover the best Christian movies, books, television, and other entertainment. You can find Crosswalk Talk on LifeAudio.com, or subscribe on Apple or Spotify so you never miss an interview that will be sure to encourage your faith.
