"He Gets Us" News Marketing

  

    The "He Gets Us" campaign, originally making its big debut as a 2023 NFL Playoff advertisement and continuing to this day. 

    We see brands from all over the spectrum when we watch football. From Pepsi, to Nissan, Nike, Budweiser, and Dunkin' Doughnuts. All of these ads are what we expect to see, that's why I think "He Gets Us" really captured the attention of the public. Rather than marketing a product, or service like the rest of the advertising brands, they were advertising a religious belief. I found this really interesting as I had never seen a religious add conducted this way. All religious ads I had seen in the past are trying to sell you a yearlong "daily devotional" or pressing you to donate to their church, really quite off-putting. I don't want someone pushing me to purchase something that I don't even know if I believe in yet. This was different. The entire ad was just black and white pictures of different people. All walks of life, all ages, all sizes and shapes. I hadn't a clue what this was trying to sell me until the end with a simple slogan, "He Gets Us, All Of Us. Jesus". They weren't selling me anything but a thought, they made me stop and think. There inlays the value proposition! (All videos on their website at https://hegetsus.com/en/featured-videos)

    After visiting the website (https://hegetsus.com/en), I read through many articles and collected some of their main points and purposes.

1. Takeaway the association of Christ with oppression and hatred.

2. "We look at the biography of Jesus through a modern lens to find new relevance in often overlooked moments and themes from his life."

3. "Rediscover the love story of Jesus." 

                                

    So far this campaign seems like a wonderfully unique idea. But, with every company, organization, or campaign, comes challenges. With "He Gets Us" being a religious campaign it is still donation based. The campaign is owned and operated by "The Servant Foundation" founded in May of 2000. An article written by Manuela López Restrepo on npr.org revealed that the campaign is largely "funded by the founder of Hobby Lobby and others..."(David Green). The campaign had 100 million for initial startup and is intending on spending a billion dollars within the next three years. (More at https://reachrightstudios.com/who-is-behind-he-gets-us/#:~:text=The%20Campaign%20of%20He%20Get,it%27s%20managed%20by%20The%20Signatry.)

    The critiques on this campaign were surprisingly minimal, but what was surprising was that some Christians found themselves offended. Claims such as marketing Jesus were wrong, and trying to sell religion was morally wrong and it didn't associate with their core beliefs. But then again, they aren't selling anything or demanding anything from any of their viewers. They are selling an idea, selling a thought, planting a seed in people's minds. One thing I would do differently to minimize the complaints from others is to make an ad that solely focuses on their agenda of rediscovering the love story of Jesus. Making an "introduction" commercial may ease some of the resisting viewers into the campaign, rather than their abrupt marketing tactics. Although I find these the best kind of advertising! Shock factor. I am excited to see where this campaign goes and where I will see it next!