A pair of Super Bowl advertisements by the Christianity-promoting ‘He Gets Us’ ad campaign prompted polarized discourse online. 

What the Ads Said: One of the ads showed images of children being friendly with one another, ending with the line, “Jesus didn’t want us to act like adults.” The other, likely the more controversial of the two, showed several images of people in heated public confrontations and at protests — including both racial justice protests and anti-lockdown protests. The ad ended with the line, “Jesus loved the people we hate.” 

The Controversy: Some, particularly those aligned with the left, accused the ad of promoting a false equivalence between racial justice movements and white supremacy or bigotry. In an apparent reference to the ad, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) tweeted: “Something tells me Jesus would *not* spend millions of dollars on Super Bowl ads to make fascism look benign.” Some, especially those aligned with the right, argued that the ad’s critics “missed the point.”

How the Media Covered It: Coverage most often focused on Ocasio-Cortez’s tweet, particularly on the right. Some coverage from the right framed Ocasio-Cortez as irrational by framing the ads favorably; The Daily Wire (Right bias) said they were simply a “message of hope and love.” Some left-rated outlets published articles discussing the “dark truth” behind the ads — that He Gets Us is funded by an organization that has donated to groups promoting abortion restrictions and limits on LGBTQ anti-discrimination laws.