The North Face - The Last Herders

Challenge

Although Denver-based The North Face has a brand recognised globally, the work the company is doing to support sustainability is not well-known.  We associate those distinctive jackets with protecting us from the weather; we are less aware of the Group’s interest in protecting the natural ecosystems. The brief was to do something that chimed with these values of environmental care.

Solution

We decided to tell a story of the kindest care in the most extreme climate, the climate you might associate with The North Face: the Arctic Circle.  But we took a different path from the action you expect from usual comms from this rugged brand. We show how a member of the Sami tribe has dedicated his life to caring for the wild reindeer who are now unable to forage through the ice formed by climate change. This is a moving metaphor of care in the natural world for a company that wants to be better understood as a provider of protection in multiple ways.