A mother cradles her newborn baby as the camera zooms into the child’s face. Soothing voices swirl. “Shh, don’t be afraid,” they say. “Don’t cry.”
Then the tone shifts. “Don’t get your hopes up,” the voices warn. “Don’t make problems. Don’t forget to plan.”
A message appears on-screen at the end: “What if the only expectation was love? Jesus doesn’t ask us to earn it.”
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The clip is part of “He Gets Us,” an ad campaign from the Dallas agency Lerma in partnership with Come Near, a nonprofit marketing group committed to facilitating conversation about Jesus Christ.
“He Gets Us” has gained recognition after three consecutive years of airing ads during the Super Bowl. The latest iteration, called Loaded Words, kicks off the campaign’s return to the NFL’s biggest game in 2026.
Loaded Words began airing Monday with three ads: “Do,” “Don’t” and “Be.” They can be viewed in holiday programs including the broadcasts for New Year’s Eve and Saturday Night Live.
The ads spotlight “small words that carry a lot of meaning,” said Feleceia B. Wilson, a brand strategy principal at Lerma. These words, she continued, are “internal cultural scripts that become the driving mechanism behind who we become” and “what we do.”
Loaded Words is aimed at sparking dialogue about what Jesus would say in these “noisy, chaotic” times, Wilson said. The videos are targeted toward people open to spirituality but who “have some skepticism — some skepticism that is rightfully theirs.”
“He Gets Us” began in 2022 to encourage the exploration of Jesus, according to its website. The campaign was criticized by some viewers for being run by the Servant Foundation, a donor to Alliance Defending Freedom, a legal group that has supported anti-abortion and anti-LGBT efforts.
Come Near took over the campaign in 2024. Among the nonprofit’s board of directors is Mart Green, son of Hobby Lobby CEO, David Green, who has said he is a backer of the ads.
Loaded Words marks a departure from the past, Wilson said. Whereas previous spots took stock of the country’s sociopolitical landscape and offered a critique of it, this year’s ads are focused more on the individual and inward reflection.
The ads come at a time when Come Near, which operates fully remote, has plans to build an office in Dallas. The nonprofit’s employee count has more than doubled (from 14 to 36) in the last year, according to spokesperson Greg Miller.
Dallas dive bar Lee Harvey’s made a brief appearance in the 2024 Super Bowl ad. Although this year’s campaign was shot in Los Angeles, “Dallas has become such a welcoming space for new opportunities,” Wilson said, referring to recent film incentives from the state government that offer additional rebates for faith-based projects. “Who knows what lies in the future? Hopefully we can bring some things home.”