This year’s He Gets Us ad for Super Bowl takes aim at consumption and pursuit of pleasure
Presented by a nonprofit evangelistic group, ad appears to avoid past controversy
Since they were launched in 2022, commercials aired by the He Gets Us campaign on the Super Bowl have provoked some controversy — both from some religious conservatives who saw them for being too “woke” in the way they endorsed love for people perceived to be sinners and from that part of the secular left critical of evangelistic campaigns funded by conservatives. But don’t expect that kind of controversy this year, as the campaign’s Super Bowl ad shifts its approach away from not-so-subtle references to social polarization.
The campaign’s 2026 Super Bowl ad, titled More and released on YouTube this week, offers Jesus Christ as an alternative to the hedonistic pursuit of pleasure. It begins with an image of girl dressed in an expensive outfit surrounded by expensive dolls and, as the voice-over puts it, “the most toys.” That image is followed by a quick series of people pursuing “more pleasure” through activities such as selfie-taking, bull-riding, plastic surgery by a man who already appears blessed with ruggedly good looks, gambling, high-adrenaline activities such as car racing, videogames, and so on.
Through video and audio, the word “more” repeatedly appears. The commercial’s message appears in text over the final scenes: “There’s more to life than more. What if Jesus shows us how to find it? HeGetsUs.com.”
He Gets Us began with fundraising in 2021, although much of the money for the ads, which cost hundreds of millions of dollars to air, came from the founder of Hobby Lobby and other wealthy investors. This year, as in the past two years, the ads are a project of a nonprofit, Come Near. Come Near has said it doesn’t represent any particular church or denomination but is interested primarily in introducing people to Jesus Christ.
Although He Gets Us is obviously an evangelistic effort in the sense that it hopes to convert non-Christians to the Christian faith, its approach is low-pressure. Visitors to the He Gets Us website are directed to videos and articles, with the newer ones reinforcing the message of the Super Bowl video by presenting Jesus as an answer to the difficulties of life.
Website visitors who click on menus beyond the videos can also get connected with Christian support groups known as Alpha groups, which meet both in person and online.