On Sunday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., criticized the two Super Bowl advertisements by the Christian group He Gets Us.
The two advertisements cost $20 million and depicted Jesus being empathetic towards immigrants and the poor, but also expressing how tired he had grown of divisions in politics. Ocasio-Cortez pointed out that she did not think Jesus would be supportive of Super Bowl commercials which she accuses of making fascism “look benign.”
The comments by Ocasio-Cortez came in the form of a tweet, which also began by pointing out that Jesus would not be spending millions of dollars on Super Bowl commercials. While she did not call out the specific ads, it is widely speculated that the comment was made in reference to the He Gets Us spots which were aired on Sunday night. The ad started with a black-and-white image of a man yelling at a police officer during a riot. More images of unrest continued before the message was displayed simply reading: “Jesus loved the people we hate.”
The advertising was partly funded by Christian groups, anonymous donors, and the family behind Hobby Lobby. The ads were trying to spread a message to those communities that had often felt excluded or unwelcome by Christianity.
A previous He Gets Us advertisement had a similar concept with black-and-white images of migrants trying to avoid persecution. It was then revealed that the ad was actually the story of Jesus, his mother, Mary, and her husband, Joseph.
