Sydney Sweeney is back for another American Eagle campaign

Syd’s back, tell a friend.

On Wednesday, American Eagle unveiled its newest Sydney Sweeney campaign, continuing a top-dollar partnership from last summer that led to much conversation, controversy, and, ultimately, big results for the clothing brand.

CMO Craig Brommers told us the first round of Sweeney ads was the “most successful campaign in the history of [American Eagle],” and comparable sales for the brand in its third and fourth quarters were up slightly, offsetting slight declines in the first two quarters of 2025. Now, the brand is betting it can run it back.

“Our Sydney Sweeney campaign was the most talked about, most culturally defining campaign of 2025, and our customers are clear,” Brommers said. “They are clamoring for a new chapter in the American Eagle and Sydney Sweeney storyline…something that moves the story forward.”

The latest campaign, “Syd for Short: American Eagle Jean Shorts,” spotlights Sweeney with a shortened name—and haircut—against a beachy backdrop to promote the brand’s shorts offerings, with a subtle nod to the virality of the past campaign.

“What brand am I wearing?” Sweeney asks in the campaign hero video. “Yeah,” she says, “that one,” before laughing.

Absent from this year’s more subdued Sweeney campaign is any reference to “genes” or genetics, which caused controversy last year. Brommers said while the brand is “informed of the past,” this campaign is all about a fresh, down-to-earth reintroduction of its spokesperson.

“When you think about Sydney Sweeney, the public often thinks about red carpets, box office hits, and Emmy-winning streaming series,” Brommers said. “But there’s also Syd, the real person, the casual, relaxed, real side of the megastar, and our customer really identifies with Syd.”

Short and sweet

While “Syd for Short” may mark a new chapter for American Eagle x Sydney Sweeney, some elements remain the same as the first iteration. Sweeney will continue to be featured prominently in imagery across American Eagle stores designed to target men and women alike. And proceeds from Sweeney’s custom shorts will continue to be donated to the Crisis Text Line nonprofit for mental health support.

The campaign will run across digital and OOH, including a 30-story, 3D billboard in Times Square where Brommers said viewers can “interact with Syd,” similar to last year’s campaign. Customers will also see Sweeney on Snapchat via Snap stories that encourage customer interaction in an effort to convey her “relaxed, casual, real side,” he added.

The campaign release timing around the April 12 premiere of Euphoria Season 3 starring Sweeney, Brommers said, is coincidental, but fortunate.

“American Eagle has a knack for being in the exact right moment at the exact right time with our talent partnerships…whether it was the Travis Kelce collaboration that launched the day after the engagement [or] our current country music campaign with Ella Langley, who has the No. 1 song in America for six weeks,” he said. “We did not intend for the campaign to necessarily surround the launch of Euphoria Season 3, but in marketing, sometimes timing is everything.”

There are big shoes to fill following the first campaign, and Brommers said American Eagle will be looking closely at metrics like new-customer acquisitions, jean-short sales, and traffic as it continues to release new iterations of the campaign in the coming months.

“There’ll be moments throughout this summer season where there’ll be fresh content and new storylines developing. [Today] is obviously the start of that,” Brommers said. “In this attention economy, we want and need people to continue to pay attention and be curious about where the brand is going next. And this summer, I think we’re really going to turn people’s heads and get people excited about the brand and our product assortment.”

As for any long-term partnership plans with Sweeney?

“Let’s see where it goes from here,” Brommers said. “Maybe we have a few tricks up our sleeve.”