When American Eagle dropped its denim campaign featuring Gen-Z it girl Sydney Sweeney in various states of undress last week, its stock jumped 18 percent — seemingly a resounding win for the legacy retailer.
But within a few days, sentiment shifted.
This week, the campaign has found itself at the centre of fierce debate on social media, revolving around the double entendre in the campaign’s title, “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans,” a nod to both her much-discussed good looks and the fact that she’s selling a pair of jeans.
It’s a relatively obvious play on words — but many had a more sinister interpretation. A swell of comments have claimed the ad has racist undertones, some even saying it supports eugenics. According to intelligence company Peakmetrics, about 53,000 posts on X have used phrases including “Nazi,” “white supremacy,” “setting women back,” “misogynistic,” “sexist” and “tone-deaf” while discussing the campaign. The reaction was something of a reflection of the increasing polarisation in US politics — even White House communications manager Steven Cheung chimed in.
“This warped, moronic and dense liberal thinking is a big reason why Americans voted the way they did in 2024,” he wrote on X.
While winding up in the same sentence as “Nazi” is never a desirable outcome for a brand, even with the backlash, the campaign will likely be a win for American Eagle. Its stock price has leveled somewhat, but it’s still up nearly 14 percent from a month ago. Plus, the controversy over the campaign has the brand at the heart of the zeitgeist for the first time in years.
It’s a sign of the times. For one, it’s further evidence that aughts-style obviously-sexy marketing is making a comeback, from fast food chain Carl’s Jr. bringing back its famed burgers-and-bikini ad approach for its 2025 Super Bowl commercial fronted by influencer Alix Earle, to makeup line Urban Decay’s latest campaign hiring a Ari Kytsya, an OnlyFans creator, to star in its latest campaign. But more than that, it’s a reminder that today, what pops in culture is directly tied to what can ignite online algorithms. Increasingly, brands that get people talking are those reaching customers — even if the response is not what they had originally hoped for.
“Everyone is the main character in their own version of the internet … everything can feel like a direct attack or provocation to you personally if it hits you the right way,” said Molly Dwyer, director of insights at Peakmetrics. “It really activates people on both sides to insert themselves into the conversation.”
Provoking the right kind of response requires cares. Making a move that some deem too provocative can alienate consumers permanently — Budweiser’s sales still haven’t recovered after it sent a personalised beer can to transgender influencer and actress Dylan Mulvaney, angering its conservative base. At the same time, try too hard to play it safe, and you risk ending up with a Victoria’s Secret fashion show-esque situation: last year’s revamped iteration was criticised for both failing to recapture its earlier magic or push the brand forward enough.
Instead, brands should think critically about how a campaign aligns with their core message, rather than seeking to engineer virality, said Dwyer. Monitoring early responses, too, will help brands quickly get on top of any reaction.
For its part, American Eagle seems to be standing by its ad. While the retailer did not respond to a request for comment, in a statement to TMZ on July 30, a spokesperson said: “This is yet another example of how social media is just not reflective of real life. The absurd response from some corners of the internet is absolutely not reflective of how American Eagle’s customers feel,” noting that 71 percent of respondents to a survey the brand held found the campaign “appealing,” according to internal research.
They have reason to be hopeful about long-term impact. The ad’s most obvious reference, Calvin Klein’s 1980 Brooke Shields ad, also sparked backlash, primarily around the sexualisation of the then-15-year-old Shields. In the end, though, “the controversy backfired,” Shields said in a 2021 interview with Vogue.
“The campaign was extremely successful,” she added. “[Calvin] said it changed his entire career and life, and it put Calvin on the map in a very different way.”
In a world in which attention is the ultimate asset, American Eagle could reap similar benefits.