Latest news with #jeans
Daily Mail
4 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
American Eagle responds to Sydney Sweeney ad backlash after campaign was compared to 'Nazi propaganda'
American Eagle has staunchly defended its viral Sydney Sweeney ad campaign, which provoked a social media meltdown that saw it compared to 'Nazi propaganda.' Entitled Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans, the video shows her buttoning up a set of the brand's denim trousers and offering a playful pun on the word 'genes.' 'Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color... my genes are blue,' the 27-year-old says. The campaign was met with an outburst of frenzied controversy, as social media users accused the ad of being racist and flirting with eugenics, particularly in light of its star's blonde-haired, blue-eyed appearance. However a representative for American Eagle has now said that 71% of respondents to an independent poll had a positive reaction to the promo. '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,' the representative added to TMZ. Daily Mail has contacted Sweeney and American Eagle's representatives for further comment. 'The bottom line is that this was about creating a great pair of jeans and supporting a very worthy cause through some of the proceeds going to domestic violence prevention. Anything beyond that is noise that is not registering with the average person,' the American Eagle spokesperson maintained. '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.' The campaign also includes an advert that sees the camera pan down Sweeney's chest as she models a plunging denim jumpsuit. She muses: 'My body's composition is determined by my genes...' before exclaiming: 'Hey, eyes up here' as the camera cuts back to her face. The advert has divided fans, however, with one critic calling the clip 'one of the loudest and most obvious racialized dog whistles we've seen and heard in a while.' The phrase 'great genes' is 'historically used to celebrate whiteness, thinness and attractiveness,' which it said made 'this campaign seem to be a tone-deaf marketing move,' a Salon report on the backlash read. Taking to social media, many expressed their shock at messaging - which they compared to Nazi propaganda. One person said the promotion 'is what happens when you have no [people] of color in a room ... particularly in a time like this. 'This ad campaign got so caught up in this 'clever' play on words and this stunt the ppl in the room missed what was so blatantly obvious to anyone not White. I'd expect this from Abercrombie… but not yall.' One user wrote of the promotion featuring the surging star, 'This is such a f****d up campaign' while another called it 'weird as hell.' Others vented about the message they felt the campaign inherently sent, as one said they were 'never shopping at AE again' while another asked the fashion house, 'What are you doing???' One Instagram user speculated, 'This has to be rage bait,' while another suggested the clothing retailer 'read the room…' in reference to the current campaign. Another user asked, 'Who on your marketing team said this was a good idea.' Yet many were quick to defend Sydney, branding the backlash 'unhinged'. They shared on X/Twitter: 'I'm not sure how to say this nicely but if you think a jeans ad with a pun about Sydney Sweeney being pretty is a nazi dogwhistle you genuinely need to put the phone down for a while.' Another argued that 'everyone is seriously reading too much into this and y'all need to go take a hike or something because sydney sweeney is literally just promoting jeans, not 'nazi propaganda."' 'The claim that Sydney Sweeney's American Eagle ad is pro-eugenics because of a 'good genes/jeans' pun is genuinely unhinged. It's a denim campaign, not a manifesto. Not every blonde with blue eyes is a Nazi. Some of you need a history book — and a nap,' wrote another. 'You guys don't have to like Sydney Sweeney or the ways she promotes herself but don't you think comparing those Jean commercials to nazi propaganda is a tad extreme?' noted another. Sweeney said in a July 23 news release about the fall campaign: 'There is something so effortless about American Eagle.' She said of the clothier: 'It's the perfect balance of being put-together but still feeling like yourself.' The Euphoria star continued: 'Their commitment to creating pieces that make you feel confident and comfortable in your own skin is something that resonates with me. 'It's rare to find a brand that grows with you, the way American Eagle has for generations.' The Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood actress wrapped up in saying, 'They have literally been there with me through every version of myself.' American Eagle Outfitters president Jennifer Foyle opened up about the ad campaign, which is slated to raise money for domestic violence charities, in the news release. 'This fall season, American Eagle is celebrating what makes our brand iconic – trendsetting denim that leads, never follows,' Foyle said. 'Innovative fits and endless versatility reflect how our community wears their denim: mixed, matched, layered and lived in.' The fashion executive explained why Sweeney made for the perfect focal point of the promotion. 'With Sydney Sweeney front and center, she brings the allure, and we add the flawless wardrobe for the winning combo of ease, attitude and a little mischief,' Foyle said. In terms of the charitable aspect of the ad campaign, American Eagle Outfitters is working with Crisis Text Line in an effort to provide grants for mental health support and crisis intervention. Proceeds from a special edition of The Sydney Jean will be donated to the organization. Among the related grants include a $100,000 Signature Grant posted this past February 2025 in an effort to expand programs at Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
CTV News
8 hours ago
- Entertainment
- CTV News
American Eagle's ‘good jeans' ads with Sydney Sweeney spark a debate on race and beauty standards
Sydney Sweeney poses for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film 'Echo Valley' on June 10, 2025, in London. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP, File) NEW YORK — U.S. fashion retailer American Eagle Outfitters wanted to make a splash with its new advertising campaign starring 27-year-old actor Sydney Sweeney. The ad blitz included 'clever, even provocative language' and was 'definitely going to push buttons,' the company's chief marketing officer told trade media outlets. It has. The question now is whether some of the public reactions the fall denim campaign produced is what American Eagle intended. Titled 'Sydney Sweeney has great jeans,' the campaign sparked a debate about race, Western beauty standards, and the backlash to 'woke' American politics and culture. Most of the negative reception focused on videos that used the word 'genes' instead of 'jeans' when discussing the blonde-haired, blue-eyed actor known for the HBO series 'Euphoria' and 'White Lotus.' Some critics saw the wordplay as a nod, either unintentional or deliberate, to eugenics, a discredited theory that held humanity could be improved through selective breeding for certain traits. Marcus Collins, an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, said the criticism could have been avoided if the ads showed models of various races making the 'genes' pun. 'You can either say this was ignorance, or this was laziness, or say that this is intentional,' Collins said. 'Either one of the three aren't good.' Other commenters on social media accused detractors of reading too much into the campaign's message. 'I love how the leftist meltdown over the Sydney Sweeney ad has only resulted in a beautiful white blonde girl with blue eyes getting 1000x the exposure for her 'good genes,'' former Fox News host Megyn Kelly wrote Tuesday on X. American Eagle didn't respond to queries from AP for comment. A snapshot of American Eagle The ad blitz comes as the teen retailer, like many merchants, wrestles with sluggish consumer spending and higher costs from tariffs. American Eagle reported in late May that total sales were down 5 per centfor its February-April quarter compared to a year earlier. A day after Sweeney was announced as the company's latest celebrity collaborator, American Eagle's stock closed more than 4 per centup. The company's shares were trading nearly 2 per centon Wednesday. Like many trendy clothing brands, American Eagle has to differentiate itself from other mid-priced chains with a famous face or by saying something edgy, according to Alan Adamson, co-founder of marketing consultancy Metaforce. Adamson said the Sweeney campaign shares a lineage with Calvin Klein jeans ads from 1980 that featured a 15-year-old Brooke Shields saying, 'You want to know what comes in between me and my Calvins? Nothing.' Some TV networks declined to air the spots because of its suggestive double entendre and Shields' age. 'It's the same playbook: a very hot model saying provocative things shot in an interesting way,' he said. Billboards, Instagram and Snapchat Chief Marketing Officer Craig Brommers told industry news website Retail Brew last week that 'Sydney is the biggest get in the history of American Eagle,' and the company planned to promote the partnership in a way that matched. The campaign features videos of Sweeney wearing slouchy jeans in various settings. Her image will appear on 3-D billboards in Times Square and elsewhere, on Snapchat speaking to users, and in an AI-enabled try-on feature. American Eagle also plans to launch a limited edition Sydney jean to raise awareness of domestic violence and to donate the sales proceeds to the nonprofit Crisis Text Line. In a news release about the ads, the company noted 'Sweeney's girl next door charm and main character energy – paired with her ability to not take herself too seriously – is the hallmark of this bold, playful campaign.' Jeans, genes and their many meanings In one video, Sweeney walks toward an American Eagle billboard of her and the tagline 'Sydney Sweeney has great genes.' She crosses out 'genes' and replaces it with 'jeans.' But what critics found the most troubling was a teaser video in which Sweeney says, 'Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color. My jeans are blue.' The video appeared on American Eagle's Facebook page and other social media channels but is not part of the official campaign. While remarking that someone has good genes is sometimes used as a compliment, the phrase also has sinister connotations. Eugenics gained popularity in early 20th century America, and Nazi Germany embraced it to carry out Adolf Hitler's plan for an Aryan master race. Civil rights activists have noted signs of eugenics regaining a foothold through the far right's promotion of the 'great replacement theory,' a racist ideology that alleges a conspiracy to diminish the influence of white people. Shalini Shankar, a cultural and linguistic anthropologist at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, said she had problems with American Eagle's 'genes' versus 'jeans' because it exacerbates a limited concept of beauty. 'American Eagle, I guess, wants to rebrand itself for a particular kind of white privileged American,' Shankar said. 'And that is the kind of aspirational image they want to circulate for people who want to wear their denim.' A cultural shift in advertising Many critics compared the American Eagle ad to a misstep by Pepsi in 2017, when it released a TV ad that showed model Kendall Jenner offer a can of soda to a police officer while ostensibly stepping away from a photo shoot to join a crowd of protesters. Viewers mocked the spot for appearing to trivialize protests of police killings of Black people. Pepsi apologed and pulled the ad. The demonstrations that followed the 2020 killing of George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis pushed many U.S. companies to make their advertising better reflect consumers of all races. Some marketers say they've observed another shift since President Donald Trump returned to office and moved to abolish all federal DEI programs and policies. Jazmin Burrell, founder of brand consulting agency Lizzie Della Creative Strategies, said she's noticed while shopping with her teenage daughter more ads and signs that prominently feature white models. 'I can see us going back to a world where diversity is not really the standard expectation in advertising,' Burrell said. American Eagle's past and future American Eagle has been praised for diverse marketing in the past, including creating a denim hijab in 2017 for customers who wore the traditional Muslim head scarves. Its Aerie lingerie brand was recognized for creating a wide range of sizes. A year ago, the company released a limited edition denim collection with tennis player Coco Gauff. The retailer has an ongoing diversity, equity and inclusion program that is primarily geared toward employees. Two days before announcing the Sweeney campaign, American Eagle named the latest recipients of its scholarship award for employees who are driving anti-racism, equality and social justice initiatives. Marketing experts offer mixed opinions on whether the attention surrounding 'good jeans' will be good for business. 'They were probably thinking that this is going to be their moment,' Myles Worthington, the founder and CEO of marketing and creative agency WORTHI. 'But this is doing the opposite and deeply distorting their brand.' Melissa Murphy, a marketing professor at Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business, said she liked certain parts of the campaign but hoped it would be expanded to showcase people besides Sweeney for the 'sake of the brand.' Other experts say the buzz is good even if it's not uniformly positive. 'If you try to follow all the rules, you'll make lots of people happy, but you'll fail,' Adamson said. 'The rocket won't take off. ' Anne D'innocenzio, The Associated Press
Geek Vibes Nation
11 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Geek Vibes Nation
'Slaxx' Blu-Ray Review - Campy Horror Film Will Make Your Fear Your Jeans
A possessed pair of jeans is brought to life to punish the unscrupulous practices of a trendy clothing company. Shipped to the company's flagship store, Slaxx proceeds to wreak carnage on staff locked in overnight to set up the new collection. For thoughts on Slaxx, please check out my thoughts on No Streaming Required: Video Quality The film debuts on Blu-Ray with a 1080p presentation in its original 2.39:1 aspect ratio that is as pleasant as one would hope. There is no discernible damage or digital noise in this transfer. You can appreciate the subtle facets on display, especially in the retail production design and the gory makeup effects brimming with exceptional textures. The movie has a natural color palette that is accurately saturated, especially in the clothing. There is likewise a rich sense of detail and clarity at hand. The transfer provides favorable black levels that do not struggle with crush or other shortcomings. Objects hold up well in the shadows and retain their depth with only a minimal banding at hand. There is only a slight loss in detail when it comes to some of the panning shots, but it is not a standout issue throughout. Shudder has delivered a rock solid Blu-Ray. Audio Quality Slaxx arrives on Blu-Ray with a precisely executed DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track that tackles all the sounds with ease. The soundtrack comes through with faithful fidelity so nothing ever sounds shrill or distorted. All elements play well with the music where nothing gets overshadowed in the track. Surround channels provide some welcome activity with the interior tones as customers mill about and other developments in the warehouse. Dialogue and sound effects are capably balanced throughout the duration. While not particularly kinetic, the movie comes alive when the narrative requires it, and environmental sounds provide an immersive atmosphere for the story. The track's low end provides some texture when the pants attack. The track accomplishes everything that is asked of it. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided. Special Features Audio Commentary: Director/co-writer Elza Kephart, co-writer/co-producer Patricia Gomez Zlatar and co-producer Anne-Marie Gélinas provide a track that provides some great insights into the production process, the background with the talent, the shooting locations, sequences and ideas that had to be abandoned, and more. Behind the Scenes Segments: There is an array of brief videos provided that give you a behind-the-scenes look at various performers and craft elements. The Story & The Message (1:44) Visual Effects (2:43) Producing Slaxx (0:54) Death Consultant (0:42) The Cast – Brett Donahue (0:49) The Cast – Romane Denis (0:53) The Cast – Sehar Bhojani (0:51) Original Trailer (1:32) Booklet: A multi-page booklet featuring an essay from film critic Tori Potenza is provided here. This piece gives a well-rounded analysis of the themes of the film. Final Thoughts Slaxx is absolutely silly and campy idea for a horror film on the face of it, and the creatives embrace this lunacy like any cult favorite genre flick of yore. The special effects are just good enough to deliver a fun time, and the characters are fleshed out enough to give you people to care about and root against. There is even an attempt to provide some thematic weight to the narrative, which is not overemphasized to feel like the movie is lecturing you. It hits the right balance that makes it an easy recommendation for horror fans who appreciate a bit of levity. Shudder has released a Blu-Ray featuring a great A/V presentation and a valuable assortment of special features. Recommended Slaxx is currently available to purchase on Standard Edition Blu-Ray or with a Limited Edition Slipcover exclusively through Vinegar Syndrome. Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray. Disclaimer: Shudder and OCN Distribution have supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.
Yahoo
12 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The Discourse Is Broken
The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. Sydney Sweeney is inexplicably reclining and also buttoning up her jeans. She's wearing a jacket with nothing underneath. She's attempting to sell some denim to women, and appears to be writhing while doing so. In a breathy voice, the actor recites the following ad copy as the camera pans up her body: 'Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality, and even eye color.' When the camera lands on her eyes, which are blue, she says, 'My jeans are blue.' The commercial is for American Eagle. The whole thing is a lot. The jeans/genes play is a garden-variety dad pun. But when uttered by Sweeney—a blond, blue-eyed actor whose buxomness and comfort in her own skin seems to drive everyone just a little bit insane—it becomes something else. Sweeney does not speak much about her politics (for interested parties, there are potential clues, such as a 2020 tweet supporting Black Lives Matter and a mention of having conservative relatives), but this hasn't stopped the right wing from framing her as one of their own. Her mere appearance in a plunging neckline on Saturday Night Live led the right-wing blogger Richard Hanania to declare that 'wokeness is dead.' Meanwhile, speaking about the American Eagle ad in a TikTok post that's been liked more than 200,000 times, one influencer said, 'It's literally giving Nazi propaganda.' For some, the ad copy about parents and offspring sounded less like a dictionary entry and more like a 4chan post—either politically obtuse or outrightly nefarious. Across platforms, people expressed their frustration that 'Sydney Sweeney is advertising eugenics.' One of the posters offered context for their alarm, arguing that 'historic fascist regimes have weaponized the feminine ideal,' ultimately linking femininity to motherhood and reproduction. Another said that, in the current political climate, a fair-skinned white woman musing about passing down her traits is 'uncreative and unfunny.'(To further complicate matters, before the controversy, American Eagle announced that a butterfly insignia on the jeans represented domestic-violence awareness and that the company would donate 100 percent of profits from 'the Sydney Jean' to a nonprofit crisis text line.) Are you tired? I'm tired! The trajectory of all this is well rehearsed at this point. Progressive posters register their genuine outrage. Reactionaries respond in kind by cataloging that outrage and using it to portray their ideological opponents as hysterical, overreactive, and out of touch. Then savvy content creators glom on to the trending discourse and surf the algorithmic waves on TikTok, X, and every other platform. Yet another faction emerges: People who agree politically with those who are outraged about Sydney Sweeney but wish they would instead channel their anger toward actual Nazis. All the while, media outlets survey the landscape and attempt to round up these conversations into clickable content—search Google's 'News' tab for Sydney Sweeney, and you'll get the gist. (Even this article, which presents individual posts as evidence of broader outrage, unavoidably plays into the cycle.) Although the Sweeney controversy is predictable, it also shows how the internet has completely disordered political and cultural discourse. Even that word, discourse—a shorthand for the way that a particular topic gets put through the internet's meat grinder—is a misnomer, because none of the participants is really talking to the others. Instead, every participant—be they bloggers, randos on X, or people leaving Instagram comments—are issuing statements, not unlike public figures. Each of these statements becomes fodder for somebody else's statement. People are not quite talking past one another, but clearly nobody's listening to anyone else. Our information ecosystem collects these statements, stripping them of their original context while adding on the context of everything else that is happening in the world: political anxieties, cultural frustrations, fandoms, niche beefs between different posters, current events, celebrity gossip, beauty standards, rampant conspiracism. No post exists on an island. They are all surrounded and colored by an infinite array of other content targeted to the tastes of individual social-media users. What can start out as a legitimate grievance becomes something else altogether—an internet event, an attention spectacle. This is not a process for sense-making; it is a process for making people feel upset at scale. Unfortunately for us all, our institutions, politicians, influencers, celebrities, and corporations—virtually everyone with a smartphone—operate inside this ecosystem. It has changed the way people talk to and fight with one another, as well as the way jeans are marketed. Electoral politics, activism, getting people to stream your SoundCloud mixtape—all of it relies on attracting attention using online platforms. The Sweeney incident is useful because it allows us to see how all these competing interests overlap to create a self-perpetuating controversy. Did American Eagle know what it was doing when it made the Sweeney advertisement? The company hasn't addressed the controversy, but the ad—not unlike the famous and controversial Brooke Shields Calvin Klein campaign it appears to be playing off of—seems like it was perhaps meant to walk a line, to be just controversial enough to garner some attention. Casting Sweeney to begin with supports this theory. Her image has been co-opted by the right, accurately or not, in part because of where she's from (the Mountain West) and some of her hobbies (fixing cars). Even her figure has become a cultural stand-in for the idea, pushed by conservative commentators, that Americans should be free to love boobs. (Sweeney's cultural associations with conservatism have also been helped along by an Instagram post she made in 2022 featuring photos from a 'surprise hoedown' party for her mother's 60th birthday; online sleuths found separate photos depicting guests in MAGA-style hats and 'Blue Lives Matter' gear, which led to a backlash.) A marketing executive with enough awareness of Sweeney's image and the political and cultural conversation around her might have figured that an ad featuring her talking about her good jeans would draw eyeballs. This does not mean that some of the outrage isn't culturally significant. Those who have spoken out about the advertisement aren't doing so in a vacuum: Fears over eugenics creeping into mainstream culture are empirically grounded—just glance at some aspects of the very public and loud pronatalist movements, which have been supported by influential people such as Elon Musk. Proud eugenicists have found purchase in mainstream culture on platforms such as X. The Trump administration is making white-supremacist-coded posts on X and enacting cruel immigration policies, complete with military-style ICE raids and imprisonment in a makeshift gulag in the Florida swamps. That's the real context that the ad was dropped into. It makes sense that, as one commentator noted, the ad might feel like it is part of 'an unbridled cultural shift toward whiteness.' But all of this reality is stripped away by opportunists across the internet. The right-wing-media ecosystem is excellent at cherry-picking examples that look, to their audiences, like egregious examples of so-called snowflake behavior. MAGA influencers and Fox News prime-time segments feed off this type of content, which allows their audiences to feel morally superior. Very real concerns about the political direction of the country and the emboldening of bigots are reduced to: Democrats are triggered by cleavage. The right-wing-media apparatus has every incentive to go at the Sweeney stuff, as the MAGA coalition struggles to distract its base from Donald Trump's Epstein-files debacle. But it's not only the right that cherry-picks. In their rush to publish viral news stories explaining the controversy, the media credulously grab examples of supposed outrage—regardless of whether the accounts in question have tens of thousands of followers (and actual influence) or just a handful. One BuzzFeed story quoted an Instagram comment from a user who is not a public figure, just a person with 119 followers. This kind of amplification, where nonpublic figures become stand-ins for public opinion, is a dangerous game. It distorts the conversation, sending a flood of attention to posts from small accounts, often in the form of other users who pile on and excoriate the original poster. In turn, this leads to the otherwise inconsequential post taking on the appearance of relevance, causing more outrage. What ends up happening in these scenarios is that everyone gets very mad, in a way that allows for a touch of moral superiority and is also good for creating online content. The Sweeney ad, like any good piece of discourse, allows everyone to exploit a political and cultural moment for different ends. Some of it is well intentioned. Some of it is cynical. Almost all of it persists because there are deeper things going on that people actually want to fight about. The polarized discourse obscures the real possibility that the majority of people encountering this ad are uninvested, passive consumers. Rather than having any conviction at all about the entire affair, they're consuming this discourse the way that people consume sports content about player infighting in a locker room or the way that people read celebrity gossip. Perhaps this is why American Eagle hasn't issued a panicked statement about the ad or why its stock price, barring a small fluctuation, hasn't changed much. For some, the stakes are high; for others, this is content to be consumed in a moment of boredom. The internet loves Sweeney—not as one might love, say, a person, but as one might love an object, an atomic unit of content. Her image is fawned over but also analyzed, co-opted, and monetized. She is savvy enough to get a piece of this action too—hence selling her bathwater and these jeans. But the internet loving you, it should be said, is not often a good thing. Its desire is limitless. It ingests a person and slowly turns them into a trend, a main character, a thing that people struggle to speak normally about. Perhaps the impulse to label these predictable culture-war moments as discourse reflects a need to make all the anger and fighting mean something. Discourse suggests a process that feels productive, maybe even democratic. But there's nothing productive about the end result of our information environment. What we're consuming isn't discourse; it's algorithmic grist for the mills that power the platforms we've uploaded our conversations onto. The grist is made of all of our very real political and cultural anxieties, ground down until they start to feel meaningless. The only thing that matters is that the machine keeps running. The wheel keeps turning, leaving everybody feeling like they've won and lost at the same time. Article originally published at The Atlantic Solve the daily Crossword
The Sun
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Sydney Sweeney's ‘good jeans' advert isn't racist – it sent stocks surging… could it spell end of woke commercials?
LEANING over the hood of a classic car, actress Sydney Sweeney smoulders for the cameras. She turns around, leaving the lens to zoom in on her behind, which looks pert in a comfy-fitting pair of denims. 9 9 And the voiceover tell us: 'Sydney Sweeney has great jeans', before the beauty drives off and the brand name American Eagle flashes on the screen. Simple? Yes. Game-changing? Absolutely. There is no doubt Sydney is explicitly selling sex — as well as denims — and she is firmly in the driving seat. Gone is the virtue signalling that underscores so much advertising today. Instead, this new campaign is selling exactly what it says on the tin. Woke messaging, and woke backlash, be damned. The results over the past few days since the ads first dropped have been monumental. With just a few saucy clips and some accompanying sexy shots plastered on billboards across the US, the jeans brand has reclaimed its Noughties' selling power. Indeed, just 24 hours after launching the promos, American Eagle's stock price had surged by ten per cent, netting the clothing company $400million in just one day. It had also reminded us — definitively — that sex sells, and 'woke-vertising' is a thing of the past. In other words, woke is officially broke. The brand's chief marketing officer Craig Brommers has called the campaign their own 'Super Bowl' — which they've timed to coincide with the back-to-school period over the next few months. Hollywood bombshell unrecognizable as she transforms into boxer for new movie – can you guess who? Lapping it up He said: 'We really wanted to cut through in culture. It will signify to our audience that this is something different, unique, special and a big moment for us.' Yet even with all its efforts — including a 20-storey high, 3D billboard in Times Square, a massive social media drive and a 360-degree advert at the Sphere Arena in Las Vegas — the firm could never have foreseen the impact it has made. As well as the massive spike in stock price, elevating it to a $2billion company, it has also drawn a line in the sand when it comes to woke advertising. Granted, the ad did, unsurprisingly, get backlash from some snowflakes and corners of the internet. According to TikTok user Angie, who analyses ads under the handle @vital_media_marketing, the under-lying message of the campaign is inherently problematic as it postures a white woman with blue eyes and blonde hair as being the epitome of 'good genes' (or jeans). Taking to social media, she said that praising Sydney, in this context, makes for 'one of the loudest and most obvious racialised dog whistles we've seen and heard in a while'. Focus on genetics Another TikTok user likened the focus on genetics to '1930s Germany'. Despite the vocal complaints, the proof is in the pudding and, as far as American Eagle is concerned, a ten per cent spike in stock is worth a bit of outrage and protest. After all, this campaign is unabashed and unapologetic in its pursuit, offering us a throwback to 'the good old days' when ads were innuendo-laden, often un-PC and selling sex at all costs. It may not be particularly deep, but it's far more authentic than the performative social, political and cultural lecturing that has been clogging ad campaigns in recent years. Meanwhile, Sydney is once again proving her serious selling power. It is a niche the actress has been carving out over the past year, in addition to her soaring acting credits, and it's one that hinges on her undeniable sex appeal. We really wanted to cut through in culture. It will signify to our audience that this is something different, unique, special and a big moment for us Craig Brommers Make no mistake: this isn't a sexual object who is being exploited for the cameras. Sydney is smouldering, proving to consumers that she is in full control. In another clip for the brand, the 27-year-old wriggles on the floor, filming herself with a hand-held camera. Again, she is playfully selling sex and brands — and consumers — are lapping it up. It's what makes her such hot property, enabling her to keep nabbing critically lauded roles, including her Oscar -tipped turn in the upcoming biopic about boxer Christy Martin, while also marketing her overly sexualised persona. Rather than being cheapened by that persona, though, Sydney's success is rocketing and she has a reputed net worth of $40million, plus she is making companies millions. 9 9 According to brand expert Nick Ede, the genius is in Sydney's USP. 'She's a modern-day sex symbol,' he tells us. 'I think what's great about her is she owns herself and she owns the way she looks. 'She's a bit like Sabrina Carpenter. They both own their sexuality, and it's up to them what they push and what they don't push.' The genius is, by knowingly owning her sexuality — and cashing in on it — Sydney is empowering herself, and empowering other women, too. She is also putting her money where her mouth is, having struck a deal with American Eagle where 100 per cent of the profits made on the limited edition 'Sydney Jean' shape will go to the US-based Crisis Text Line, which supports survivors of domestic violence. Surely that is far more worthy than any woke-tinged ad campaign could ever be? She's a modern-day sex symbol. I think what's great about her is she owns herself and she owns the way she looks Nick Ede As Nick explains, Sydney knows full well what she is doing and she is in on the innuendo. It is something she proved earlier this year, following her tongue-in-cheek partnership with soap brand Dr Squatch, which saw her release a range of soap made of her own bathwater. Again, the messaging was overt, unapologetic, cheeky and displayed Sydney's greatest, ahem, assets, with a knowing wink to the camera — while playfully mocking the 'dirty little boys' who lusted after her. It is also something the actress is well versed in after debuting as the hyper-sexualised character Cassie in Euphoria in 2019. She has since learnt the art of capitalising on her sex appeal — last year wearing a T-shirt with a slogan that read: 'Sorry for having great tits and correct opinions'. And judging by her ad campaigns' continued successes, she is clearly striking a chord with punters who have grown increasingly tired of the 'woke' ads all over social media and TV. In the past year, Sydney has also struck million-dollar deals with MiuMiu, HeyDude shoes, Samsung, Ford and clothing firm Dickies, plus make-up deals with Armani, Laneige and Kérastase. Seduce audience The implication is that, with her old-school, sultry branding and her modern self-awareness, she is the ultimate saleswoman. Let's remember, dating back to the Mad Men -style days of the 1960s, advertising has always been aligned to the art of selling sex. It reached its peak in the Eighties and Nineties when — whether you were selling dishwashing liquid, shampoo or chocolate — you were aiming to seduce your audience. Just think of Diet Coke's infamous TV ads, that ran from 1994 to 2013, featuring a gaggle of women lusting after a topless workman to the soundtrack of Etta James' I Just Want To Make Love To You. Or who could forget the orgasmic-sounding commercial for Herbal Essences shampoo in 1998, which featured a woman in the shower oohing and ahhing as she massaged her scalp? 9 9 9 The suggestive marketing didn't stop there. Indeed, models such as Claudia Schiffer and Kate Moss became synonymous with risque ads, as they posed in very little for the likes of Guess and Yves Saint-Laurent's Opium fragrance. While fellow model Eva Herzigova stopped traffic with her infamous 'Hello Boys' billboard ads for Wonderbra in 1994. And we still blush at the thought of those very sultry ads for Cadbury's Flake in the early 1990s, featuring lingering shots of a woman lathering up in the bath, before locking eyes with the audience as she seductively bit down on her chocolate bar. Subtle, it was not. As for jeans, they've always sold something a little dirtier than denim. Think of Brooke Shields' 1980 Calvin Klein campaign which featured her alongside the tagline: ' . . . what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing.' Forty-five years later, the world of advertising is back to where it started, with an added level of playful awareness — but it had to take a few detours along the way. In recent years a plethora of brands embraced the so-called 'woke-vertising' of the moment — a trend where a political or cultural lesson emerges as the centrepiece of a frivolous campaign. The intention may have been worthy, but the outcome hasn't always had the positive effect intended, as Jaguar can attest to. Last year, the car firm was mocked over an ad featuring models of different races and genders in bright colours — but no cars. Critics slammed the brand for its 'woke corporate virtue signalling', claiming it had made a gross misstep in trying to stay relevant by over-pandering to PC culture and erasing its identity. Elon Musk weighed in on X, asking the firm: 'Do you sell cars?' Likewise, Pepsi made a faux pas in 2017, with their advert which showed Kendall Jenner giving a smiling police officer a can of the soda amid a race protest. Then there was Ben & Jerry's disastrous 2023 ad campaign, in which the ice cream giant called for the US to return its 'stolen indigenous land'. Consumers were duly dumbfounded by the unsolicited lecture. Amid the 'woke-vertising', it seems brands have lost sight of the point of ad campaigns — to sell a product, not lecture their audience. American Eagle's success should force them to think again. 9
