Lessons learned from American Eagle’s crash and burn

Could American Eagle’s most expensive campaign to date end up being its most costly mistake?

The campaign, which launched last week with actor Sydney Sweeney at the helm, reportedly cost millions of dollars as a big-bet play to reverse declining sales after the company reported a $68 million operating loss in Q1 of this year. Initially, the campaign caused American Eagle’s stock to jump (perhaps due in part to it becoming a meme stock), but as the campaign spread, its focus on Sweeney’s physical attributes caused a social media firestorm on multiple fronts.

A video touting Sweeney’s genetics as a play on the jeans/genes homophone, in which she states, “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality, and even eye color. My jeans are blue,” drew backlash for what some called eugenicist dogwhistle language given Sweeney’s traditionally Aryan features. Others took issue with the campaign’s use of sex appeal as a vehicle for domestic violence awareness and the general weirdness of the visuals and the script, which has now become a meme.

“People were very upset, and not only people who didn’t look like Sydney Sweeney,” Myles Worthington, CEO and founder of marketing agency Worthi, told us. “They missed the mark, both tonally when it comes to the copy and the visuals they put out there.”

Comedians to marketers to celebrities continue to weigh in as American Eagle is seemingly retreating. Some of the brand’s most controversial posts, including the “My jeans are blue” video and another that zooms in on Sweeney’s chest, appear to have been taken down from some of its channels. Executives seem to be shielding themselves from the public: Craig Brommers, CMO, and Ashley Schapiro, VP of marketing, have turned off comments on their LinkedIn posts announcing the campaign and Angela Sumner, creative director of media, social, and influencer, has removed her profile picture and abbreviated her last name on the platform, Ad Age reported. (American Eagle’s comms agency, Shadow, did not respond to requests for comment.)

How American Eagle will respond as a brand remains to be seen, but experts told us that there are clear lessons to be learned from the campaign to date.

A need for more voices

Given the scale of the campaign, many critics have noted how many people likely had to approve the campaign, which could indicate a lack of diversity among decision-makers at American Eagle.

“It’s so clear that they didn’t have anybody in the room that poked and prodded at this ad,” Worthington said. “I would bet all the dollars in the world that it was a very white, very privileged room [full of] people who didn’t ask the right questions.”

Prior to the launch of the campaign, American Eagle CMO Craig Brommers told us that the brand wanted to use Sweeney’s recognizability and sex appeal to reach women who want to be Sweeney and men who want to be with her in the hopes of “[cutting] through in culture.”

“With Sydney, we want people to either reconsider and reengage with us or look at us in a new light and begin to shop the brand,” Brommers said last week.

By framing Sweeney’s features as “good genes,” Worthington said there is an implication that “everything else that isn’t this perfect blonde, white [skin], blue eyes, snatched-waist prototype is not good genes.”

The timing has caused some to contrast American Eagle’s campaign with Ralph Lauren’s recent “Oak Bluffs” campaign, which celebrates the “Black Hamptons” on Martha’s Vineyard.

Many have noted the similarities between the “My jeans are blue” video and Calvin Klein’s infamous 1980s Brooke Shields ad, which drew controversy for its sexually suggestive script and Shields being 15 at the time of filming.

Between the sexual aspects of the campaign and the focus on genetics, some critics have said they’re not convinced that the brand wasn’t consciously rage- or engagement-baiting, or perhaps seeking to reach an audience responsive to that type of messaging. Since the campaign was released, some on the right have come out to praise or defend it.

“If they’re going after that demo, and it boosted the stock price like 4% or whatever it is, then they’ve been successful,” Seth Horowitz, veteran publicist and president of marketing services group Horowitz Agency, told us.

Same story, different brand?

Even if American Eagle’s intent was to simply highlight a conventionally attractive spokesperson, some have said they feel it was a misguided strategy to begin with. A person who identified herself as a former social media manager for American Eagle shared her thoughts on TikTok, saying that the brand’s “lack of direction, lack of social awareness,” and overall disconnect from its customers stems from a desire to outperform competitors like Abercrombie & Fitch. Given American Eagle’s place in a “sea of sameness” among other retailers like A&F and Urban Outfitters, Worthington said he sees why American Eagle sought to stand out, but that impact was limited by the campaign’s copy and the decision to not take on a more “alt or different” spokesperson, rather than one with mass appeal.

Sweeney, he said, is a safe bet with broad interest, which is perhaps why she’s worked with so many brands and done similarly sexually suggestive campaigns in the past, most recently by selling her bathwater soap with Dr. Squatch. Brommers previously told us he didn’t feel that this campaign would lose impact as yet another campaign for Sweeney, and he was confident her fans would be supportive, but that hasn’t entirely been the case.

According to Worthington, there’s a difference between popularity and influence, and Sweeney is leaning more toward the former because of the number of products she’s promoted.

“Sydney Sweeney seems like a safe bet, but actually, because she’s so monopolized, it’s not a safe bet,” he said. ”You’re spending a fuck ton of money and not getting any influence…Are people going to buy American Eagle because Sydney Sweeney said yes? Probably not, because she says yes to everything.”

Where to now?

So how does American Eagle move forward? At this point, Horowitz said he doesn’t expect American Eagle to issue an apology. What they do next, he said, will likely be determined by sales and engagement from the campaign.

“If they’re looking at the bottom line and it’s boosting sales for them, then they might just move on from this,” he said.

What Horowitz said he’s particularly interested to see is how American Eagle’s campaign impacts its other brand, Aerie, which was built on body positivity and inclusion. Some people online have already called on brands like Levi’s to respond with their Beyoncé denim collab, or have spotlighted past jeans/genes content from brands like Gap as a counter to American Eagle’s campaign.

Washington said he believes the reason American Eagle hasn’t spoken up yet is because its team may not know what to say, but he feels an apology is in order if the brand wants to engage those it’s alienated with this campaign. While bringing in a diverse group of people to represent “good genes” in the first place would have been ideal, he said even if the campaign copy is redone or expanded to be more inclusive, it’ll always be marred by the first iteration.

“This was a campaign that they needed to matter, and it did the opposite,” he said. “I’d be very surprised if they were able to dig out of this as a business.”