Last week, when I committed to writing about the Super Bowl commercials, I did not anticipate that the most talked about and controversial commercial would end up being one about Jesus.
The commercial in question is “Foot Washing,” the latest ad from the non-denominational He Gets Us campaign. While a slowed down version of the INXS song “Never Tear Us Apart” plays in the background, the video moves through a series of photos depicting one person (who’s either in a position of authority or otherwise the stereotypical image of an American Christian) washing the feet of a person who is different from them–a representative of a group that has historically been in conflict with American authority figures / Christians.
There is, for example, a police officer washing the feet of a Black man, a non-Muslim woman washing the feet of a Muslim woman, a pastor washing a gay man’s feet, a woman (presumably Pro-Life) washing the feet of another woman (presumably contemplating or coming out from having an abortion) outside a Family Planning Center. You get the idea.
After this series of image, the message is declared in text that drops in, one word at a time) on drumbeats: “Jesus didn’t teach hate. He washed feet. He gets us. All of us.” The commercial closes by directing viewers to visit HeGetsUs.com/LoveYourNeighbor.
Much of the feedback to this commercial was critical, for a variety of reasons. Some condemned the “branding” and commercialization of Jesus–not new feedback to the He Gets Us campaign, formerly operated by the Servant Foundation and now managed by the nonprofit Come Near. Others thought it portrayed Jesus too narrowly, even pushing a universalist view of Jesus’ work (a view contrary to Jesus’ own teaching).
Still others condemned the use of AI-generated images and the use of funds to make a commercial, instead of using that money to serve people more directly. Some people only noticed there were a lot of feet. One YouTube commenter said, “[B]etter to spend the 50 million actually people than buying an ad (and especially one made with AI art).” Another, “Yeah cool. Nobody cares. It’s an AI generated photo sideshow with music they paid millions of dollars to air on TV. It’s cringe and redundant and they should’ve donated that money elsewhere.”
It’s worth noting that some defended the commercial’s message. One comment reads, “It’s a very cool commercial. People don’t get it. Jesus sat [and] took time with everyone. He didn’t accept sin, but he accepted the person. Invoking change for that person! Washing feet was a servant job, [the] very lowest you could get. Jesus taking the time to wash his disciples [sic] feet was an act of his service and just showed he was always being the ultimate example for us.”
This comment (and the whole commercial) refers to a scene recorded in John 13:3-17. There, Jesus–the eternal Son of God–“emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant” (Philippians 2:7). In fact, Jesus’ entire life and ministry was centered on servanthood. Mark 10:45 tells us, “[E]ven the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” He “came to seek and save the lost” (Luke 19:10), and he often did this by connecting with all sorts of social outcasts over meals. Jesus’ openness to people who weren’t used to being embraced was criticized by the emptily religious people of the day: Matthew 11:19 tells us, “The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’”
The “Foot Washing” commercial looks to address the often emptily religious people of our day, as well as those who’ve only heard about Jesus and his teachings from such people. In the wake of the commercial’s airing during Super Bowl LVIII, He Gets Us spokesperson Greg Miller said, “Our goal is to really show that Jesus loved and cared for anyone and everyone.” Not just this one commercial but the entire ‘He Gets Us’ campaign is meant “to try and invite anyone, no matter what they believe, to explore the story of Jesus,” and “the audience of the Super Bowl allows us to do that with the greatest potential reach.”
With evident confidence that “all press is good press,” the goal of the ad was to get people talking about Jesus. As the campaign’s website reportedly received 715,000 views in the 24 hours following the Super Bowl, it seems to have been a relative success.
Personally, I wasn’t a huge fan of the ad itself. The first thing I noticed was that the images were AI. In a recent post on A Charlie Brown Christmas, I talked a bit about the value of Christianity’s authenticity: “In a world distracted and enamored by the artificial (like the aluminum Christmas trees Charlie Brown and Linus see on the tree farm), one man (well, both Charles Schulz and his fictional counterpart, Charlie Brown) stood up for the real.” The whole point is that the truth handed down to us in the Bible is not artificial, and that message felt undermined by the use of images generated by artificial intelligence.
I also sympathize a bit with those who voiced concern that the portrayal of Jesus here, while valid, falls short. A couple days after the Super Bowl,Jamie Bambrick’s YouTube channel posted a response video, entitled, “The Christian Super Bowl Ad They SHOULD Have Made | He Saves Us.” In the description, Bambrick writes, “A group known as ‘He Gets Us’ released an advert during the Super Bowl which, whilst perhaps well intentioned, failed to convey anything of the gospel to the hundreds of millions who saw it.”
The response video features a series of real images of real people whose lives have been transformed by Jesus: a former witch, renowned atheist Richard Dawkins’ former right-hand man, a former jihadist, a former KKK member, among many other “formers” who have been reformed by turning to Christ for forgiveness, hope, and new life. After the images, words once again drop in to a beat: “Jesus doesn’t just get us. He saves us.” In quick succession, the word “saves” here becomes a whole series of verbs describing what Jesus does for us: He “cleanses, restores, forgives, heals, delivers, redeems, loves.”
The ad closes with the line, “Such were some of you,” quoting from 1 Corinthians 6:11: “And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” As many commenters (and myself) agree, there is still emphasis on “washing” and “cleansing” here as in the “Foot Washing” commercial, but with a crucial addition: Jesus washes not just feet but hearts and souls. He washes away not just literal dirt but the spiritual dirt–all the guilt and shame we’d be stuck in otherwise.
Ultimately, while I do think the He Gets Us ad has its problems and in some cases only furthered the resentment some feel toward Westernized Christianity today, I’m thankful for the opportunity it’s provided for conversations about authentic Christianity. If nothing else, it’s a useful jumping-off point. May these conversations bear fruit and ultimately serve to glorify God.
Up Next: My local church is starting its seven-week Lenten series. We’re going through “What We Believe,” using the Apostles’ Creed as our guide. I’ll be sharing content from that series here. If you’re interested in going through the series, you can access a digital copy of our curriculum here.
Detroit, Reformed. 
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