On Sunday, New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D) criticized the Christian group He Gets Us for reportedly spending $20 million on two Super Bowl advertisements. The ads portrayed Jesus as someone empathetic to immigrants and the poor who also expressed that the discourse and division in politics had grown tiresome.
Ocasio-Cortez took to Twitter to write that she did not believe that Jesus would have spent that kind of money on Super Bowl advertisements that “make fascism look benign.”
While she did nor directly reference the ads, it is widely presumed that she referred to the He Gets Us ad which started with a series of black-and-white images of men shouting at police officers during a riot and other images of unrest. Following the images, a text appeared on the screen reading: “Jesus loved the people we hate.”
The advertising campaign had the backing of the family behind Hobby Lobby, a number of Christian groups, and anonymous donors. The ads mainly try to spread the message that Jesus is welcoming of communities that often feel unwelcome to Christianity.
The He Gets Us campaign launched in March 2022 and will be dedicating $2 billion in funding to advertisements over the next few years. The ads aim to bring viewers to their website which includes Bible readings, texts about religion and Jesus, and methods to converse with others. A previous advertisement in the campaign included the story of a migrant family told in black-and-white images. In the end, it is revealed that it is the story of Jesus, his mother, Mary, and her husband, Joseph.
