AN ADVERTISING campaign of $100 million is hoping to free “brand Jesus” from the damage done by some of his followers.
The He Gets Us campaign was launched in the United States with a series of videos featuring Jesus as a rebel, an activist, and the host of a dinner party. Billboards with messages including “Jesus let his hair down, too” have been posted in sites in larger cities, including New York City and Las Vegas.
The $100-million campaign is funded by Signatry, a Christian foundation based in Texas, according to the Religion News Service.
The campaign website says that it is “designed to create cultural change in the way people think about Jesus and his relevance in our lives”, and that it wants to free Jesus from “hypocrites and extremists”.
He Gets Us is not a political organisation, it says. “We’re not ‘Left’ or ‘Right’. We’re not affiliated with any church or denomination. We simply want everyone to understand and relate to the authentic Jesus as he’s depicted in the Bible — the Jesus of radical forgiveness, compassion, and love.
“This is about getting to know the real Jesus. How Jesus experienced the same problems and emotions that we’ve all been through. It’s about providing a safe place to ask questions, including the tough ones. And realizing that Jesus is as relevant today as he was 2,000 years ago.
“This is about sharing Jesus’ radical love and acceptance — of everyone. Though you may see Christians as hypocritical or judgmental, that’s not what Jesus was about. Instead, Jesus offered radical compassion, stood up for the marginalized, and understood the human condition and all its frailties because he experienced them too.”
The video ads have attracted millions of views. They were made under the direction of the Michigan-based marketing agency Haven, and focus on aspects of Jesus’s earthly experience.
People can choose four ways to engage from the videos: chat live; text for “prayer and positivity”; sign up for Alpha; or click through for a Bible-reading plan. Hundreds of churches have signed up to respond to people who fill in contact forms on the website.
Haven’s director, Jason Vanderground, said that about 30,000 people had signed up for Bible-reading plans, and more than half had completed the course.
“Our research shows that many people’s only exposure to Jesus is through Christians who reflect him imperfectly, and too often in ways that create a distorted or incomplete picture of his radical compassion and love for others,” he said. “We believe it’s more important now than ever for the real, authentic Jesus to be represented in the public marketplace as he is in the Bible.”
Southern Baptist Churches issued a statement from their president, Dr Kevin Ezell, saying that their churches would not get involved.
Dr Ezell said that “The effort is too broad for us to directly connect with the campaign”, and that when he originally said that those engaged by the campaign could be connected to local churches, he has now rescinded that offer.
hegetsus.com