Go ‘Behind Closed Doors’ in Downy’s Latest Spot for Unstopables

To release the ‘Unstopable’ freshness in the latest ad for fabric softener Downy, production company Townhouse and advertising agency Grey have teamed up with Nice Shoes. The creative studio provided end-to-end post production for the campaign, entitled ‘Behind closed doors’.

The 30 second spot, directed by Aircastle through Rattling Stick, opens on a typical everyday scene; a man sitting in his bedroom. The story then flips, however, as bright neon light shines through the closet doors, summoning him to reach for a particular shirt. The viewer is quickly transported behind the closed doors of Downy’s playful and exciting world. 

In the spirit of Downy’s campaigns, the ad focuses on fun and exciting times. The spot brings 90s pop culture to life - from the actors’ costumes and set colours to the music used in the spot: La Bouche’s famous ‘Be My Lover’.

To relay dynamism to the already vivid spot, whilst also keeping a contemporary feel, the team at Nice Shoes produced a mind-blowing CGI world that supported the extraordinary staging of the directors. In addition to VFX, the creative studio provided colour, editing and finishing for the spot.

Sal Malfitano, senior colourist at Nice Shoes says: “The colour brief was to keep the 'real world' opening and closing shots warm with an early evening kind of vibe. And once we got into the closet party world we went more pop, contrast and colour. We did a pre grade with the creative team for the VFX team and then did a final master grade on the final VFX shots. It gave the VFX team a palette to work from and me a place to continue from.”

“It is great to work on an end-to-end workflow and pipeline, as technical and creative efficiencies are greatly enhanced, when the whole team is involved in a campaign. Because we are designing a workflow for a specific job as an internal team we can spot potential problems faster and shift schedules and resources faster, improving efficiencies. It's a net positive almost all of the time for the final product” adds Sal.

Colin Loughlin, editor at Nice Shoes comments: “We had so many collaborative artists in each part of the pipeline, we could always discuss the vision for the final look & feel.  From shoot to edit to colour to composite to mix, everyone involved wanted to create the best spot possible, and our team at Nice Shoes is certainly feeling that was achieved through a great collaboration.”

Eleven, creative director at Nice Shoes: “It was a great experience to work with the production team at Townhouse. They perfectly understood the VFX workflow so we could all focus on the right steps at the right time. The only tricky part was to coordinate creative talents in three different countries and time zones (USA, Germany, Hungary), while tackling complex shots with extensive rotoscoping and full CG set replacements, but all worked out perfectly.”