Backlash didn’t fade these blues.
American Eagle’s “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans” campaign, which dropped this summer, had critics up in arms with its double entendre.
But, while the controversy made headlines, the bottom line told a different story: American Eagle says the ads are the most successful in the company’s history.
During its latest earnings call on Wednesday, the retailer reported $1.28 billion in revenue for the quarter ending Aug. 2—its second-highest ever. Executives credited the “Euphoria” actress for much of the boost, with chief marketing officer Craig Brommers calling the campaign a record-breaker.
“Sweeney is a winner, and in just six weeks, the campaign has generated unprecedented new customer acquisition,” he said on the company’s earnings call.
The sales numbers back him up. Sweeney’s custom jeans sold out in a week, her jacket in a single day, and her dedicated “Syd’s Picks” shop online has been restocked four times. The brand gained new customers in every U.S. county and saw brand awareness spike across demographics.
Brommers told The Business of Fashion, “Hands down, the Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans campaign is our most successful campaign to date.”
The buzz has even carried over to Wall Street. Shares of American Eagle soared more than 30 percent after the earnings call, marking one of the retailer’s best trading days in years.
Since July, the campaign has been an online flashpoint. In one spot, Sweeney tells viewers that traits like “hair color, personality and even eye color” are passed from parents to children before delivering the line, “My jeans are blue.”
The ad was quickly slammed on social media, with critics accusing the retailer of promoting eugenics and issuing a “racialized dog whistle” with its play on the words “genes” and “jeans.”
But the actress herself has remained mum on the controversy, refusing to answer questions about the campaign in a recent cover story for WSJ.
American Eagle isn’t backing away, however. Brommers said Sweeney will continue as the face of the brand, with “new elements” of the campaign rolling out this fall.
That push coincides with a high-profile collaboration with Travis Kelce’s Tru Kolors brand, the first collection of which launched Aug. 27, one day after Kelce and Taylor Swift announced their engagement.
The timing was unplanned, Brommers told BoF, but it surely worked in the brand’s favor: The line sold three times more in its first day than previous collabs sold in a week. A second drop is planned for September 24.
As for Sweeney’s campaign, Brommers said, “The marketing results speak for themselves.”
In this case, the actress’s “great jeans” turned out to be great business.