A Grand Haven company behind the ‘He Gets Us’ ad campaign is spending millions of dollars on two ads that will air during the Super Bowl.
Haven previewed the ads at an event Wednesday night in Grand Rapids.
According to the campaign’s website, ‘He Gets Us’ is a movement to “reintroduce people to the Jesus of the Bible.”
Organizers say they want to unify the American people around Jesus and his teachings.
You may have already seen some of their ads that have run during national sporting events, promoting messages like “Jesus was wrongly judged” and “Jesus welcomed all to the table.”
“When you think about being in front of 115 million people — it’s like you’re here tonight, we’re talking because of the Super Bowl — and so all of our audiences are so excited about knowing that Jesus is going to be in the Super Bowl, it creates so much energy,” Jason Vanderground, the president of Haven, said. “The Super Bowl is literally a kickoff thing for people. It’s not like you’re reaching the finish line and going, ‘We’re in the Super Bowl, that’s it, great, let’s pack up and go home.’ It’s the start of something and that’s what we want people to know about.”
It’s unclear exactly how much the group spent on the ad buy, but estimates show a 30 second ad spot went for $7 million this year.
It's very weird because... like... What church are you even being asked to join?
Or are you just supposed to watch a TV ad and become a Lutheran?
These are almost certainly evangelicals that have insane ideas about if people just knew more about Jesus they'd become Christians.
You have to dig to figure out who's funding them, but they're associated with the Servant Foundation, which is attached like a tumor to the Oklahoma United Methodist Foundation, one of those wacky branches of a branches that evangelical protestants like to do.
But in reality, these people simply use the trappings of Christianity to move money around and spread propaganda. They're evangelicals trying to assuage their own psychic guilt for being financial ghouls and yet also claiming to be charitable Christians. Organizations like these are an attempt to square the circle of Jesus saying rich people are denied entry into heaven and yet American protestant Christianity operating as a constituent aspect of conservative capitalist ideology.
:mattjak:
It worked for Luther, I guess. Antisemitic, inflammatory pamphlets were the TV ads of his day.
None of these ads are particularly inflammatory. They're mostly cheesy and often so padded in metaphor that you don't even know you're watching a religious ad until the stinger at the end.
Just not clear how this wins anyone over. They're selling a deep escoteric philosophy. They're not selling burgers.