Over the last decade, fabric softener sales have been slowly declining. Yet, during that time, the advertising has remained virtually the same: piles of fluffy towels, stacks of cuddly sweaters, and lots of stuffed bears. While these ads emphasize how soft they make fabrics, they never address what those fabrics are soft against—your skin.

Skin irritation is a significant problem, with over 70% of people suffering from sensitivity. 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 address how a problem often blamed on the skin might actually be caused by the 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 and zoomed in—and then zoomed in even closer—to show exactly why they need Downy Free & Gentle.

No CGI, no physical models, and three days of camera tests led to scenes that promise to leave the viewer feeling itchy.