After more than a week of near-nonstop scrutiny on social media, in the mainstream media and among consumers, American Eagle Outfitters has addressed the controversy facing its new ad campaign featuring Sydney Sweeney.
The sportswear and denim company posted on its Instagram Friday afternoon, saying: “’Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans‘ is and always was about the jeans. Her jeans. Her story. We’ll continue to celebrate how everyone wears their AE jeans with confidence, their way. Great jeans look good on everyone.”
In one of the campaign’s promotional videos, the 27-year-old “White Lotus” and “Euphoria” actress is seen lying on the floor zipping up her jeans, as she says, “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color.” The camera then focuses on her face, when she says, “My jeans are blue.” The narrator then says the campaign’s tag line: “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans.”
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Some questioned the narrative and the use of “genes,” seeing a sign of eugenics.
Executives at American Eagle were not available Friday afternoon to comment further, according to Rebekah Margulis, associate vice president of fashion and retail at Shadow, the outside public relations firm that American Eagle works with.
Sweeney has not commented publicly about the controversy, nor has the stylist Molly Dickson, who worked on the campaign. Sweeney’s most recent post to her 25 million Instagram followers reads, “I have great jeans…now you can too.” That included a short video from the campaign of her closing the trunk of a car and then wiping her hands on her backside as she walked away.
American Eagle’s response post had racked up more than 36,600 likes and 5,483 comments. Some offered such remarks as, “I can’t believe this is all real.” And “It’s really clear who you’re all aligning yourselves with and the world’s watching and acting (shopping) accordingly.” Others offered “Liberal meltdown incoming.” And “Your intern really cooked with this one.”
Asked about AEO’s response Friday, Sacred Heart University professor David Loranger said its approach is “counter to everything that is a branding standard and what business schools teach about crisis management. Perhaps American Eagle was surprised by the reaction to this ad, but if they had taken the time to beta test it in the first place, they wouldn’t be in this mess.”
From Loranger’s viewpoint, “to get such a vehement reaction from [some] consumers and to double down is sort of unheard of, and in my opinion, ignores their target market.” He compared the campaign to one that might have been done by American Apparel’s founder Dov Charney or Abercrombie & Fitch’s former chief executive officer Mike Jeffries in their heydays.
Loranger said, “To disregard market reaction is not only arrogant but shows complete indifference to consumers. The market determines what’s acceptable and not acceptable, not the brand. It will be interesting to see where this goes. Who knows? It may become an advertising business case where we will teach what not to do. In any event, they should fire their copywriter.”
Former Levi’s brand president Jennifer Sey, who is CEO of XX-XY Athletics, offered a different take. “There is no reason for American Eagle Outfitters to apologize or backtrack because some women on TikTok, who probably never bought the brand anyway, don’t like it,” she said.
Sey said she has been pitched “this exact campaign many times” over the years. She added, “It’s an obvious one. A play on words. Nothing more. A beautiful woman, looking great in her jeans, [who is] at the top of her career and celebrity, and in on the joke? Sweeney’s self-awareness and humor are what make the ad unique and fun.”
Sey offered, “If I were advising American Eagle Outfitters, I’d tell them to ignore the haters. Stand strong. Don’t cower to the bullies who want to make everything a tale of oppression — even a fun ad campaign for jeans. The cancelers can’t cancel anymore. They’ve lost their power. They just haven’t realized it yet.”
Sew Branded’s founder Scott Woodward said Friday that the jeans-genes “clever word play” in the campaign “just feels off” given the current cultural zeitgeist and that “struck a nerve with loyal Gen Z consumers and advertising media types, too.”
Digging in and not acknowledging how it made consumers feel might exacerbate the situation, according to Woodward.
“Confidence in and celebrating everyone is a definitely good message for them, as they’ve owned that successfully and beautifully for a long time,” he said.
Noting how the AEO brand case study on how to know your consumer is one that he has shared while teaching students at Parsons School of Design, Woodward said he was “rooting” for AEO, as Sweeney was another wonderful, culturally relevant partner with whom to collaborate on their storied jeans brand.”
However, Loranger speculated about how Sweeney’s personal brand may be impacted by the backlash. “Here, it may be the sponsor brand that drags down the celebrity, rather than the reverse, as in the Travis Scott-Dior fiasco. Her people are probably in damage control mode.”
A few years ago Dior postponed the release of its menswear collaboration with the musician after 10 people were killed in a stampede at his Astroworld music festival in Houston in 2021.
Prior to the launch in an interview with WWD, American Eagle’s chief marketing officer Craig Brommers described the campaign as “potentially one of the biggest gets in American Eagle history.” He said, “Sydney Sweeney is the ‘It’ girl of the moment, and she is helping us create the ‘It’ jeans campaign of the season. Sydney really encapsulates American Eagle. She is the girl who can play the red carpet but she’s also the girl next door, and that duality really defines Gen Z and Millennials.”
The Sweeney campaign’s July 23 launch reportedly helped to increase the market value of AEO by $400 million.
AEO’s stock closed Friday down less than 1 percent at $10.74.
