The “He Gets Us” ads are an expensive bait-and-switch trying to trick people into believing in MAGA Jesus
Of the many weird, cringeworthy, or confusing ads to run in the Super Bowl on Sunday, one stood out as especially eyeroll-inducing: a footwashing ad from the “He Gets Us” campaign. The commercial flashed a series of images of people washing another person’s feet, with most offering an attention-grabbing role reversal of oppressor and oppressed: A cop washing a young Black man’s feet, a white woman serving a migrant, and, for the one that made me guffaw the loudest, an anti-abortion protester kneeling before a presumed patient of a family planning clinic. “Jesus didn’t teach hate,” reads the tagline as an INXS cover plays. “He washed feet.”
Jesus washed the feet of friends and enemies. No ego or hate. He humbly loved his neighbors. How can we do the same? pic.twitter.com/kXift42ZG9
— HeGetsUs (@HeGetsUs) February 11, 2024
The funders of the ad were obscure to the audience, leaving open the question: Are the people behind this simply naive? Are they the last remaining liberal Christians, trying to convince Donald Trump-obsessed evangelicals to stop the tidal wave of hate? Or is this ad a bait-and-switch, trying to lure unchurched people in with a phony message of love and acceptance, only to push them into joining up with the MAGA movement?
There’s no point in phony suspense here: It’s option number three. Jesus may have been against lying, but his wealthiest self-appointed champions in American society do not hesitate to use deceit to build up their army of MAGA Christianity.
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