Never Before Have I Laughed So Hard At One Guy’s Non-Attempt To Save The Planet

The PSA starts with single frame of a crossword in a newspaper the epitome of normalcy for the working class of society. This sets up the next frame which brings us the most average looking yet still attractively appealing to female’s, hipster-esk male they could conjure up.  Quickly in this frame text flies across our screens reading “YOU ARE A GOOD PER-SON.” What better way to get us to do something then compliment us first. Queue the montage of normality. The frames fly by with insignificant images, only existing to show the average, middle-class man.  He is seen feeding his son, reading with his son, going to the gym, and most essentially, taking a shower while conserving water which is something most of us like to think we do. He gets dressed in average clothes which don’t appear to be designer or dirt cheap. This keeps him in the level which we can relate to more. If he was wearing designer clothes it ruins the illusion. He writes a check for 1,000$ but unless the video is stopped, it’s very hard to see the dollar amount. This keeps the illusion of him being the common man. The size of the check would dramatically change his representation of man and the message of the ad itself. If he wrote an extremely large number it would remove him from the middle class and change the impact of the ad. Now if he were to write a very small number, it would be assumed that he is lacking a charitable heart and does not care about the environment that we seem to be pushed towards.

The next frame he is recycling, which is mostly likely the simplest way to feel as if one is helping the environment. He disposes a bin of papers and an empty wine bottle. The wine bottle is significant because many middle class house wives are presumed to drink wine at night, and is recognized by society. He drives away in a Prius, the most commonly known environmentally-friendly car, pushing him further into the “save the environment” type. The first time viewing this we might not notice the California license plate or the specific San Francisco boarder around it. Him living in San Francisco is on purpose because we associate the environmentally –friendly, Prius drivers as being Californians. Sticking to the theme of, “this guy helps in every way he can possibly think of”, he is now riding a bike, presumably to work. The problem with this is he had just previously pulled away in a Prius, in which he decided to turn back so he could ride his bike? The Voice-over clears up the mix up. Over the next three quick frames, it shows three different angles of him at what is assumed to be his office work desk. We are then shown a clip of him goofing off at work watching a video on YouTube, which makes him more relatable. The scene where he is shown goofing off, grounds him if we were detached from some of the previous scenes.

The ad takes us right into another three frame scene of him mailing a letter in which clearly reads “MOM.” What guy doesn’t love his mother? The ad makers want us to know he loves his mother to the point of she has a collection of cards from him. Not only that, but they fill the entire screen with “ALWAYS” the biggest text yet. Then he brushes his teeth which is really oddly placed scene in which doesn’t really fit in the order. It cuts to frontal shot of him smiling. Text comes onto the screen reading “NOT SO GOOD” our character or hero in a sense, is let down by his efforts not being enough. We go to him looking into the mirror signifying self-reflection; the bottom of the screen reads “MORE.” We are rapidly shown four pictures of problems in the world, and are not told what these four problems are because that is not the focus. The ad makers don’t want to deter from their point with other problems. After the fourth photo, it brings us to two photos of him and his alleged wife on Facebook.  Two quick clips of him doing yoga are shown to signify that he feels like he could have had a better use of his time to save the environment. This is purely for comedy, mostly unneeded and bashes yoga. We are taken forward to another bike ride in which we are shown his office building, and another shot of him at work watching Youtube again, where he sees a video of the rainforest being cut down.

We now see the purpose of this ad and we compute the overall theme. We see what’s happening to the rainforest at the same time he is seeing it. We have some numbers thrown in our face which we are used to at this point. The words “BAD,” “ANGRY” and “GUILTY” are thrown into our faces. This sums up how he feels and how we should feel in neglect towards the rainforest. While flashing back and forth from his shocked face to these scenes of trees being cut down, makes us feel as though he is watching them with us. The text “YOU MUST DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT” is on not our screen but his. We are flashed with many pictures of the damaged rainforests and the creatures which inhabit it. All is closed with his shocked face and the text “THIS IS WHAT YOU’RE NOT GOING TO DO.” This is great because ads like this do not tell us what we shouldn’t do only what they want us to do. We are now going to be led by a bad example on the contrary to a usually good one. He then gets up and does the classic “I quit” job scene and storms out with his stuff in a box. He is shown leaving his family to board an airplane in which we see just fly but not him getting on. After he lands we are shown a clip of what appears to be a first person perspective of him walking by a sign that reads “Nicaragua” which is where the upcoming events are now going to take place. This begins a travel montage he first boards a bus where he looks scared of the other passengers. He then is shown pulling his luggage across a great number of places trying to get to the rainforest. These scenes are very relatable because this is no doubt how many Americans would actually act in this situation.  He even uses his smart phone to navigate to his destination. We are shown the mascot of the rainforest, the tree frog, crawling on the man’s arm to signify he has made it. As he jumps in a waterfall, we all wish we could as well.

We watch our hero walk into a native village then get branded by a cattle prong to prove himself. The ad now tells us what we already know. We know that this way of trying to fix things is the crazy “CLICHÉ GRINGO FANTASY” way of fixing things. A number of fantasy heroes are flashed on the screen with our main character or hero at the end. The text on the screen then reads “BUT SCREW IT IF THEY CAN DO IT SO CAN YOU.” This is meant to be a joke seeing how they originally told us this is what not to do. The ad makers are showing us how this way of taking action does nothing. It cuts to our hero yelling towards the same waterfall as shown before. He is then putting a coach-like plan together on an iPad as the natives are listening. Our hero has apparently started an “occupy the rainforest” movement where the natives are seen picketing.  The movement gets attention as it is shown on the internet to massive amounts of anonymous viewers. The movement is shown to be ineffective and in the next scene the trees are still being moved out. Our hero is shown as becoming frustrated. A white screen appears with the text “SUMMON THE POWER OF THE GODS” cutting into another scene with our hero in front of the same waterfall wearing the same clothes as before. He wears these clothes throughout the entire ad yet carries a suitcase and never changes.

After speaking to said “gods”, our hero now starts to lead a rebellion against the deforesters with the natives. The deforesters are shown with chainsaws while the natives have spears. There is a rather quick battle scene with the natives losing tragically. Our hero wakes up in a hospital badly beaten missing two toes. Now limping, he takes his excruciatingly long trip back home. The scenes of him going home are much longer than him going to the rainforest. This is to let us know he had a horrible trip home. During this trip, he stops to have a cigarette in the desert and starts a huge wildfire. This is to signify that when we help in the wrong way we can do more harm than good. Finally making it back to San Francisco he finds he has been replaced at his job. After finding out he was replaced at work but he returns home to discover his, what appeared to be, physical trainer is now with his wife. He is then punched in the face by is now ex-wife as his baby laughs. Now that we have seen the dramatic negative impact of actually going to the rainforest is to try and help it, the words “BUT WHAT YOU CAN DO” are shown to us. This makes us pay attention as we were just shown for the last minute of this ad what not to do. We are told to “FOLLOW THE FROG.” The ad now showcases us with an array of products that have this rainforest frog stamp on them. This also brings us back to where he was playing with the frog in the forest as it connects. Thought not said in text we are led to believe that these products help the rainforest. It ends with his ex-wife happy with her new husband and our hero lying face down on his old porch. This ad is very effective because it shows us that even if we can’t go to the rainforest to save it or do almost any of these things we can buy these products. It makes us believe that we can make a difference without having to leave our own backyard.