Sydney Sweeney has great jeans, or genes, or both. That’s what it seems the newest American Eagle ad is trying to sell us. This campaign, featuring the blonde-haired blue-eyed beauty, has stirred up a great deal of controversy. This controversy has fueled conversation – and also sales. So, what if I told you this wasn’t a misstep but a clear strategy?
The slogan of this campaign is “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans.” It’s a pun, often used in other jean campaigns, to also mean that Sweeney is, well, hot. Which she is. The issue critics bring up, however, is that the wordplay, combined with Sweeney’s conventionally white beauty, seems to be a little white supremacist or to be echoing eugenicist logic.
One ad in particular raises the most concern. In the clip, she breathily delivers the line: “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color… My jeans are blue.” The end shot is a visual of her bright blue eyes, making viewers believe that it may not just be about American Eagle’s infamous blue jeans.
Another reason this one clip is under fire is because it is a clear reference to Brooke Shields’ 1980s Calvin Klein jean campaign. That ad shows Shields putting on a pair of jeans while explaining genetics – a pun as well. The issue with that Shields ad is that she was 15 years old. Shields has talked about later in her career as being overly sexualized as a child and cites both “The Blue Lagoon” and that Calvin Klein campaign. So, for American Eagle to create almost a direct copy of that same ad is inherently problematic.
Speculation online has said that American Eagle is purposefully trying to promote an overly sexualized and white supremacist image. Many commenters point out that marketing campaigns have to be approved by a large number of people, and there is no way that it was just a mistake. Defenders, however, say that the ad was never meant to promote an “ideal” gene but was just making a slightly funny comment about Sydney Sweeney being attractive.
Either way, American Eagle stock has risen significantly, signaling that the discourse around the ad did them fairly well. It’s Marketing 101 – get people talking, and your sales will do well. American Eagle had to have known, to a certain degree, this would spark outrage, and that was the whole point.
This has caused uproar on too many levels for it to be a complete mistake. It seems that American Eagle wanted to create a campaign that was just controversial enough to get people talking, but not too bad for a complete scandal. They are in a position where they could claim ignorance and still be able to make sales.
The ad is weird, most can admit. But, American Eagle knew exactly how far they could push without real fallout. It stirred up just enough drama and outrage to trend, but not enough to sink their brand. The truth? Controversy sells – and they sold it well.
