“Sydney Sweeney has great jeans”. This is the slogan American Eagle decided to use for their massive marketing campaign. Poking fun at the Hollywood star’s good looks and the product it’s selling, the campaign has come under fire for its supposed racist connotations and oversexualisation of the young actress. Despite the backlash, American Eagle stock seems to not have suffered at all, begging an important question: can scandals be good for business?
The main issue people are levying against the ad is its focus on genetics, or rather the play on words with “geans” and “jeans”. The campaign went viral initially when American Eagle uploaded a video in which Sydney Sweeney, a blonde, blue-eyed white woman, models the brand’s jeans while saying: “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color…My jeans are blue.”
Many people quickly pointed out that the underlying message of the ad felt eerily similar to promoting eugenics or white-supremacy. Although the company has since pulled the video, the brand is sticking with the word-play as the crux of the campaign, insisting more on Sweeney’s good looks rather than her genetic features.
However, the choice has also received some backlash by people who feel like the company is oversexualising a young actress. Some people even noted certain similarities between this campaign and the infamous Brooke Shields Calvin Klein ad in which she was only 15 years old.
How times have changed
In 1980, 15-year-old Brooke Shields appeared in a series of print and TV commercials for Calvin Klein. One particular TV ad, featuring her delivering the brand’s provocative tagline — “You want to know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing.” — sparked significant controversy due to her young age, prompting some networks to refuse airing the commercials. Unfortunately, these kinds of marketing campaigns were normal at the time.
Nowadays, people’s sensitivity appears to have changed. As more and more people feel uncomfortable by the blatant objectification of super models and movie stars. Brands like Abercrombie & Fitch faced a lot of backlash for their oversexualised ad campaigns and discriminatory hiring practices. As the fight against discrimination in the world goes on, people demand more respect in the way brands choose to market their products.
The power of a scandal
Despite all the criticism the Sweeney campaign received, it seems more people feel the slogan is appropriate than not. In a recent YouGov poll, conducted among Americans, more than 50% of people felt the word-play was not problematic, while only 16% of respondents deemed it inappropriate. Furthermore, age seems to play an important role in whether or not the campaign is received well, as most of those who find it offensive are between the ages of 18 and 29.
Nevertheless, the backlash appears to have only boosted the campaign’s reach, with stocks for American Eagle shooting over 20%. Therefore, although times are changing and people are becoming more aware of the messages brands decide to push, online controversies are still a powerful tool of amplifying a specific campaign.
