American Eagle released a recent campaign for their new line of jeans with the face of popular actor Sydney Sweeney. In the marketing for this campaign, they decided to use a play on words with jeans and genes in a new ad that was released to the public – “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans” – to promote American Eagle’s new jeans. However, the majority of the public had a rather negative reaction to the advertisement, and other jean brands began personal marketing campaigns to win the public’s perception in light of American Eagle’s failure.
Levi’s campaign with Beyonce was one of the first ad campaigns that were immediately compared to the Sydney Sweeney X American Eagle campaign. The main comparison was the difference in messaging with both campaigns. Many consumers online said that the Sweeney campaign was tone deaf and was confining to the standard of blonde hair and blue eyes. Meanwhile, Beyonce’s campaign showed confidence and a story of empowering women through jeans, which was much better received by the public.
Arguably one of the most successful campaigns to piggyback off the flop of American Eagle’s campaign was GAP’s KATSEYE jean campaign. In the campaign, they show the diverse girl group, KATSEYE, whilst there are a group of diverse models and backup dancers furthering the message of inclusivity. They dance to the catchy 2000’s song Milkshake whilst promoting the jeans. This marketing tactic led to one of GAP’s most successful marketing campaigns with the ad going viral.
Other brands to respond to the American Eagle situation include Old Navy, who presented a diverse campaign with the primary saying for the campaign being “These are the jeans your other jeans warned you about.” Abercrombie and Fitch also produced a campaign showing diversity with the primary saying for the campaign being “Denim should feel like being comfortable in your own skin.”
With all these brands countering the American Eagle X Sydney Sweeney campaign, the public assumption would be that American Eagle would issue a public apology of sorts. However, they have taken an alternative route, trying to cover up Sweeney’s campaign with a partnership with football star Travis Kelce. Paired with the switch from Sweeney to Kelce, American Eagle lowered their jean prices for about a week – though the sale has since ended.
American Eagle’s sales went down despite some parties defending the advertisement and American Eagle standing publicly by their campaign. In a post American Eagle made to Instagram, they doubled down about the Sweeney campaign, but also shared that they believe jeans should look good on everyone in that same public statement. Sweeney herself hasn’t made any real public comments regarding the campaign. This being said, Sweeney has a history of not responding to other political controversies.
American Eagle is continuing to brush the whole situation under the rug, whilst their competitors get more traction from the controversy. While American Eagle has made some statements, it is clear that their brand and image are altered from how they handled the backlash from so many consumers.
