The North Face trolls the influencer generation

The North Face parodies internet snark in its latest campaign, built around the phrase “Go touch grass”, fitting nicely into this week’s focus on the great outdoors.

With creative support from Zalando and cultural insight from Highsnobiety, North Face’s imaginative campaign begins with a dismissive insult in digital comment sections, urging people to step away from their screens and get outside. 

It then morphs into a surreal tongue-in-cheek journey in which an urbanite experiences the real world.

The film leans hard into the contemporary meme aesthetic, featuring quick edits of scrolling thumbs and screen fatigue, juxtaposed with rolling hills.

The protagonist is later seen fawning over a pair of North Face sneakers.

The campaign is an attempt, much like Kathmandu’s effort this week (LINK), to make the outdoors more relatable: albeit in a very different way.

The North Face uses the popular internet phrase “go touch grass” to appeal to urban audiences who could probably use a bit of time away from their screens: a smart move given that the brand is already known for its crossover urban/country appeal.

The ad lands by seizing on a cultural joke (see also Asics recent ‘Performative Male ad’), proving that not every outdoor brand message needs to be aspirational or heroic.

The ad is certainly maximal in its leanings, but overall we reckon it succeeds on ambition alone. Sometimes providing some laughs and an antidote to digital burnout is curative enough.