Super Bowl 'He Gets Us' advert: East Belfast man racks up 1.5 million views and counting with video responding to $17.5 million advert

The advert which prompted him to act, according to Huffington Post, cost $17.5 million. Entitled 'He Gets Us', it shows a series of images of people on opposite sides of heated ‘culture war’ issues in the US washing each other’s feet.

The objective behind the campaign, Christianity Today reported, was to target millennials and Gen Z “with a carefully crafted, exhaustively researched, and market-tested message about Jesus Christ: He gets us.”

Huffington Post reported a social media backlash to the adverts from people who believed that the $17.5m could have been put to much more ‘Christian’ use, for example in needy sections of education - and due to allegations about links to other political causes.

However Mr Bambrick, an associate pastor at Church of Ireland Hope Church in Craigavon, was among those who were disappointed for other reasons.

"The adverts were basically a series of images of people washing feet, and at the end they said Jesus doesn't preach hate - he washes feet, which is absolutely true," said the avid NFL fan and content creator.

"But a lot of the Christian world's response was that it felt like a missed opportunity, because while Jesus loves us in our sin, he also wants to save us from it. So it felt like an incomplete message.

"So a friend of mine put out a tweet saying it'd be great if someone remade this and showed what a better version would be.

"So I just had the idea - what if we took stories of things that Jesus has done in people's lives and to a fuller message? So it is saying that Jesus doesn't just support us in our sin, he saves us from it, and that is the heart of the gospel."

In the first 24 hours the clip secured 1.5m views on X/Twitter, 170,000 on his YouTube channel, and about 100,000 views on Instagram.

His video features a series of real individuals with descriptions underneath; "former witch; Richard Dawkins' former right hand man; former jihadist; former KKK member; former drug addict; former gang leader; former drag queen and prostitute; former abortionist; former transgender; former pornstar; former new age guru; former lesbian activist."

It concludes, "Jesus doesn't just get us... he saves, transforms, cleanses, restores, heals, redeems and loves us".

He acknowledges that some of the descriptions may raise heckles among some in 2024, due to contemporary ideas of what does and does not constitute sin.

But he counters that when the church runs into controversy with teachings on sexual ethics nowadays, it is often not choosing to speak out on such issues, but rather being pressed to respond to what is already happening in culture.

"I would say our core message to people is that maybe they have misheard that the church doesn't love them as they are - which is incorrect. But also that Jesus loves them enough to not leave them as they are. He calls us to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him. And in following him, we actually find life and life in all its fullness."

With the original advert focusing on acts of humility - foot washing - the News Letter asked Pastor Bambrick if churches in 2024 might sometimes gain more credibility by also acknowledging the reality of religious pride as a sin?

He replied: "If you look in the book of Acts in pretty much every gospel presentation there is a direct confrontation with popular sins of those who are hearing and so yes, religious pride may be one."