Downy Free & Gentle | Saatchi & Saatchi

D O W N Y F R E E & G E N T L E

Over the last decade, fabric softeners sales have slowly been declining. And yet during that time, the advertising has remained pretty much the same: piles of fluffy towels, stacks of cuddly sweaters, and lots and lots of stuffed bears. But while these ads all talk about how soft they make fabrics, they never talk about what those fabrics are soft against… your skin.

And skin irritation is a massive problem. Over 70% of people suffer from sensitive, and every year, Americans spend over 18 billion dollars trying to treat it.

So instead of focusing on how soft we make fabrics, Downy decided to flip the entire category on its head and talk about how a problem that people blame on their skin, might actually be a problem with their laundry.

But we didn’t want to do this with CGI or physical models, we wanted to prove it. So we used newly developed probe lenses, laser guided microscopes, custom build camera rigs to take consumers on a cinematic journey and show them exactly why they need Downy Free & Gentle.

Here is the behind the scenes of how we pulled this off.

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CCO: Matt McKay
Executive Creative Director: Jason Stefanik
Copywriter: Ben Cascella
Art Director: Juliana Ardilla