Follow The Frog Campaign Analysis

Since the advent of the digital era, the attention span of the individual has decreased over time (Gausby 46). Also, as the article by Rothenberg elucidates, there is a burgeoning of mechanisms like ad-block that enables viewers to skip advertisements completely (Rothenberg). As a result, any non-profit wishing to promote awareness is compelled to make unique attention-grabbing commercials that are watched across the globe: commercials that live lives of their own, breathing, transforming and evolving in the minds of the viewer. The Rainforest Alliance’s shamelessly amusing yet culturally relevant three minute long video for the “Follow the Frog” campaign fits this criteria perfectly: it delightfully lampoons its very audience of office-workers

who fantasize about ‘making the world a better place’, sprinkles doubt into their long-held beliefs and prejudices, and even suggests a simple way by which they can actually make a difference to a global issue — by “following the frog”.
The phrase “following the frog” is used by the video makers to symbolize the idea of buying products with the Rainforest Alliance’s mark on them. The creators cleverly use splashes of comedy and subtle contrasts to emphasize the relative ease of choosing a different product in the supermarket by figuratively “following the frog” over actually going to the heart of the rainforest and literally “following the frog”.
The entire “Follow the Frog” video is a masterpiece that plays like a story loosely following the various stages in the hero’s journey template — that was described by Joseph Campbell — which are as follows (Campbell).
Departure
The Ordinary World - The video starts off with the attention grabbing words “you’re a good person”, and describes a few activities the hero performs everyday — spending time with his family, donating to charity, recycle, or buying gifts on mothers’ day.
The “not-so-good things” - The video then suggests that the hero understands that he could be doing more for the world (which is “bursting at the seams”) but is not able to forego his regular routine of work — and occasionally watching hilarious videos of prairie dogs — to do so.
The call to adventure - The hero sees a video which mentions a football field’s amount of rainforest is being destroyed every 78 seconds. This compels him to act.
Crossing the Threshold to the Special World - The hero quits his ‘ordinary world’ by leaving his job, family and life behind, and goes to the heart of the rainforest in Nicaragua by crossing lakes, rivers and waterfalls.
Initiation
Tests, and Allies - The hero ingratiates with local tribesmen and goes to great lengths to earn their respect and trust. He then coordinates an occupy the rainforest movement, which ultimately fails.
The Ordeal - The hero attempts to lead a “revolution” against the deforesters and their employers, only to awaken in a hospital in El Salvador with two toes missing.
Return
The Road back - The hero hobbles out of Central America, across the Sierra Madre, and finally makes it back home only to find he’s replaced at work by TJ, and replaced at home by his gym trainer.
Resurrection and Redemption - The real hero (the viewer) understands that he doesn’t have to go to such great lengths to make a difference, and instead he could just follow the frog.
Throughout this story, the narrator uses the word “you” to refer to the character on the screen. This constantly reminds the viewer that they’re the real hero of the story — they have the power to avoid doing what the character in the video is doing. This means of direct address also captures the viewer immediately into the storyline and keeps the viewer hooked till the end (even though the video is very long for a commercial).
 Though long, the video is packed with pathos in the form of humor and light jabs at society that together ensure that the audience’s attention doesn’t stray throughout the duration of the video. There is an instance when the visuals portray images of unrest in the world (like the Occupy Wall Street movement) but, in parallel, the main character is shown doing yoga. This satirizes the video’s very target audience of slacktivists who would rather sign petitions and watch videos online than cause actual change in the world. In another scene, the protagonist — who is wading through forests, lakes and bogs — asks Siri to take him to the “heart of the rainforest”. This makes fun of the idea that people in first world countries have gotten so used to the pleasures of technology that they can’t let go of it even in a rainforest. There is also a portion of the video that appears to be mildly racist but the video makers use humor to quell such doubts in the viewer: they bring to light the parallels to Avatar and Lawrence of Arabia and hilariously claim that “this is when you realize that you’ve been living the cliche’d gringo fantasy of becoming an honorary native”. It is through such light-hearted and well timed humor and repetition that the video conveys its hidden (and subtle) message to the viewer: you don't have to go to the ends of the Earth to save the rainforest, you can just follow the frog!
On another note, while it is never explicitly stated, there is also a strong thread of logos throughout the video. Through the lens of the fun and frolic of events chained by loose causality depicting ‘what you shouldn’t do’, the creators of the video argue that it is simpler for the viewer to just pick out products with a frog label on them in the grocery store, and in a sense, let the ‘experts handle the rest’. The video also smartly introduces some numbers to support the idea that the rainforests are depleting, but it doesn’t do this directly: instead, the numbers appear in a video the main character sees. This allows the commercial to use logos to appeal to the the viewer’s logical side without completely abandoning the humorous theme of the entire piece.
Though not as obvious as the use of pathos and logos, the commercial also uses ethos to buttress its argument. The man in the video is one the audience can relate to — he is an unnamed person with good intentions, but is not able to make substantial change to the world — and so the audience can see itself making similar mistakes to the man’s in the video. So when, in the conclusion, the video argues that “what you can do is follow the frog”, the viewer agrees because the video is essentially asking the question “do you want to be like this guy who’s on the floor and lost everything, or do you want to follow the frog?” In addition, at the end of the video, the creators also sprinkle ethos in the form of images of various brands that have already signed on to the campaign like Kenco Coffee, Mars Chocolate and Lipton Tea. This helps the viewer trust the Rainforest Alliance and the Follow the Frog campaign because some well-known brands trust them too.
The follow the frog video was released on YouTube, and I think this was a deliberate choice on the creators’ part. This way, the Rainforest Alliance didn’t need to spend approximately $4 million to secure a primetime TV spot during a popular season like the Super Bowl (Siltanen). Instead, it could release the advert for free on the internet and target its main audience of armchair activists directly. Releasing it on YouTube also allowed people from other countries (like India!) to view the ad and be exposed to a piece of cultural history, if nothing else Furthermore, the worldwide interest that the video garnered propelled this commercial into being chosen as one of the “Ads worth spreading” for the initiative of the same name by TED — a gold standard in the area of commercial making (Ads Worth Spreading).
As a final example to demonstrate the quality of this commercial, consider the video “The Rainforest Needs You” .

This is a well-produced commercial made by the same Rainforest Alliance that made the “follow the frog” campaign. It depicts the problems of depleting rainforests and demonstrates how the Rainforest Alliance is making an effort to help this cause. However, as of October 28, it has just 16,948 views (The Rainforest Alliance, The Rainforest Needs You). In contrast, the Follow the frog video has 5,143,541 views - over 300 times as many views (The Rainforest Alliance, Follow the Frog). That is over 300 times the impact on the current generation of slackitivist internet users. The average internet user’s attention span is short, and to get the user to make a change in their lives, a commercial has to make the viewer feel that he’s doing almost nothing different from usual. The follow the frog campaign does just this - it beautifully combines logos, pathos and ethos to convince the viewer that they just have to look a little longer in the grocery store to prevent the depletion of the rainforests of the world. It is a work of art that lives a life of its own, breathing, transforming and evolving in the minds of the viewer. This is what a commercial with a strong purpose, good direction, smart rhetorical appeals and a hilarious script can do. Maybe more advertising agencies should start following “Follow the

Frog”?