HATERS GONNA HIKE: MAMMUT DEPLOYS AI TO RESCUE THE INTERNET FROM ITSELF
Take a Hike! Chatbot "Cliff" targets online toxicity with an invitation to the mountains.
May 7, 2026
Seon, Switzerland | Mammut, the Swiss mountain sports brand, has launched a new campaign, “Take a Hike,” aimed at redirecting the rising tide of online negativity, to the great outdoors. Powered by a custom AI tool named Cliff, Mammut is identifying the internet’s most frustrated voices and offering them a real-world solution to being a warrior with their keyboard: the transformative power of nature.
In a world designed for convenience, people have never been more restless. Chronic "ease culture" has left a generation feeling resentful and irritable, often manifesting as toxicity in digital comment sections. Mammut believes the antidote isn’t another shortcut, but the restorative effort of the mountains.
“At Mammut, we’ve always believed that the mountains are the best place to gain perspective,” said Nic Brandenberger, CMO at Mammut. “The internet has become a pressure valve for frustration, but scrolling isn't the solution—effort is. With ‘Take a Hike,’ we are meeting people exactly where that restlessness lives and challenging them to trade their screens for the trail.”
Engineering an AI Intervention
Cliff is not a standard chatbot; it is a sophisticated frustration tracker built on Python and hosted on Google Cloud Platform, using Gemini as its reasoning layer to navigate the nuance of human irritability. Built by DEPT®, it collects thousands of comments across YouTube and X, to identify the moments where "internet rage" is at its peak. By analyzing tone the way a human community manager would—but at a scale no human team could match—Cliff surfaces up to 600 relevant conversations a day, delivering the campaign’s core message exactly where it's needed most: “Take a Hike!”
Take a Hike! Literally.
The campaign is underpinned by a growing body of scientific evidence regarding the benefits of the outdoors. Research shows that a 90-minute nature walk actively decreases "rumination" (the repetitive negative thoughts often found in comment sections) and lowers neural activity in parts of the brain linked to mental illness.¹ Furthermore, just four days of immersion in nature, disconnected from multimedia and technology, has been shown to increase creative problem-solving performance by 50 percent.²
“The science is clear: spending time in nature physically alters the body’s response to stress,” continued Brandenberger. “It measurably decreases tension, anxiety, and anger while improving cognitive function. We aren't just telling people to get outside because we sell gear; we’re telling them to go to the mountains because nature acts as a powerful therapeutic tool, significantly improving psychological well-being compared to walking in urban settings.”
The campaign will go live across Instagram, YouTube, X, and TikTok, supported by a behind-the-scenes content series. Following the digital launch, the campaign will extend into the physical world with guerrilla Out-of-Home (OOH) activations designed to intercept consumers in high-stress urban environments and point them toward the peaks.
Supporting the places that make it possible
Alongside the campaign, Mammut is supporting the Appalachian Trail Conservancy in its work to protect and maintain the Appalachian Trail, one of the world’s most iconic long-distance hiking routes. As part of this effort, Mammut will contribute funding tied to public participation during the campaign, translating online engagement into direct support for conservation and long-term stewardship of natural spaces.
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For reference
¹ Bratman, G.N. et al. (2015). "Nature experience reduces rumination and subgenual prefrontal cortex activation." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(28), 8567–8572. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1510459112
² Atchley, R.A., Strayer, D.L. & Atchley, P. (2012). "Creativity in the Wild: Improving Creative Reasoning through Immersion in Natural Settings." PLOS ONE, 7(12). https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0051474