American Eagle says Sweeney ad campaign is only about ‘Jeans’

By Jeannette Neumann

American Eagle Outfitters Inc. defended its media campaign featuring Sydney Sweeney following criticism that the ads have racist undertones.

The spot “is and always was about the jeans,” the company said in a post on Instagram. American Eagle said it will “continue to celebrate how everyone wears their AE jeans with confidence, their way.”

The apparel retailer launched an ad blitz last week with the tagline “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans.” One of the campaign’s videos plays on the same-sounding word “genes” as Sweeney zips up her jeans and intones that “genes are passed down from parents to offspring often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color.”

“My jeans are blue,” she adds, flashing her blue eyes at the camera.

The video sparked a debate online about whether the focus on the genes of a White, blond woman conjured up the racist theory of eugenics. Other social media users have said critics are reading too much into the ads.

When the campaign was initially unveiled on July 23, American Eagle shares rose. “I think this is potentially one of the biggest gets in American Eagle history,” Chief Marketing Officer Craig Brommers, said in an interview with Women’s Wear Daily on July 23. “Sydney Sweeney is the ‘It’ girl of the moment, and she is helping us create the ‘It’ jeans campaign of the season,” he added.

Data from Bloomberg Second Measure data, which tracks debit and credit card transactions from US consumers, hasn’t shown any immediate impact on sales at American Eagle. Analysts are closely watching spending at the retailer during the important back-to-school season.

Some shoppers might be turned off by the ad campaign and the noise around it, said Jessica Ramírez, managing director at retail analysis firm the Consumer Collective, and opt to shop at competitors such as Levi Strauss & Co., Abercrombie & Fitch Co. or Gap Inc. “There are other options out there,” she said.

JPMorgan analyst Matthew Boss recently cut his recommendation for American Eagle to underweight from neutral, saying that the market’s expectations for earnings are too high. The company is looking to bounce back after pulling its 2025 outlook and a charge of $75 million related to the writedown of merchandise.