Have you ever been in a meeting when lightning struck? Have you ever had that moment when you see a concept, idea, or innovation that makes you so excited that you become blind to all potential pitfalls or traps?
This is my highly speculative guess as to what happened to the folks at American Eagle.
American Eagle launched a denim campaign with Sydney Sweeney and set the internet on fire. The hook? A pun. The big idea I referred to before. “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans.” Jeans, genes. Clever enough to make a creative director giggle, bold enough to make a CMO high‑five their CFO, and, as it turns out, risky enough to light up America’s culture wars.
The stock popped. American Eagle added nearly $400 million in market cap in 24 hours. But then came the storm. Suddenly, this wasn’t about sales or stock prices. It was about race, beauty, politics, and the new reality of marketing in 2025.
That is why I think it really happened, as I guess. Somebody pitched the idea. Everyone thought it was super clever. They ran it up the flagpole, got buy‑in, and sprinted full steam ahead. No pause. No gut check. “Hey, should we run this past a few more people?” And in the attention economy, I understand it. Everyone wants the breakthrough idea. Everyone wants the viral moment.
But that rush cost them.
I can’t imagine they intended to be racist or demeaning. According to their data, nearly 50% of their associates are non-white – https://www.aeo-inc.com/inclusion-diversity/. However, when you play with words like “genes,” you don’t just play with fashion. You play with history. Eugenics. White supremacy. The “blue blood” myth goes back centuries, where pale‑skinned aristocrats with visible veins were seen as “pure.” It is not exactly a phrase you want to echo when your model is a blonde, blue‑eyed actress.
Now, I don’t for a second believe American Eagle set out to be racist. I’ve followed Craig Brommers, their CMO, for years. His team partnered with Crisis Text Line and collaborates with BeReal to push authentic connections. That’s not the work of someone blind to the world around them. But here’s the reality: intent doesn’t matter. How people respond does. For many, that response was to be justifiably offended, if not downright scared.
In today’s America, outrage isn’t just expected, it’s monetized. As Evan Nierman wrote in Fast Company, “outrage has become its own form of currency.” Dan Granger said it even plainer in USA Today: “There’s a clear correlation between loud, polarizing content and successful ad performance.” That’s the playbook. The “outrage industrial complex.” And AE’s stock bump proves it works at least for a while. As of August 4, 2025, their stock is around $12.45, up nearly 16% from a month ago.
But here’s the question nobody seems to be asking: what’s the long game?
Sydney Sweeney? She wins here. This is right on brand for her. Glamorous. Provocative. Polarizing. She’s registered Republican, her family’s MAGA-themed party photos are out there, and she’s not exactly shy about controversy. And, to be fair, she’s told InStyle and Marie Claire that she actually wears American Eagle jeans, swears by them, and used to shop there when she wasn’t making big Hollywood money. So for her, this isn’t a stretch. It’s just another big headline.
But for American Eagle? This feels like a missed opportunity. They could have still had their pun. They could have leaned into “blue” jeans, flag, country, all of it—and done it with multiple spokespeople. America isn’t one face. America has many faces. Their customers are diverse. Their future is diverse. If they’d shown that in the campaign, they’d still be in the news for the right reasons.
That’s the part that frustrates me, as fixing this shouldn’t be so hard. Should it? I don’t want to be cliche and suggest that more diverse leadership, diverse voices, and a little more curiosity before going all in would have made the difference. If we all just look beyond our bubbles and assumptions, we can infuse diversity in our thinking. You don’t have to be diverse to understand this; you just need to broaden your field of view.
Over the past few years, for some reason, the C-suite has decided that Marketing is less important than product, technology, or logistics. Time to think again. The headline to remember about this situation is that CEOs and Boards should realize that these campaigns are “just ads.” They’re not. Their statements. They’re signals. And in 2025, their financial events. Which means leaders need a plan. What do you do if people love it? How do you double down? What do you do if people ignore it? How do you adjust? What do you do if people hate it? How do you respond? And what do you do when one half of the country cheers while the other half screams?
Those aren’t hypotheticals anymore.
You may run a brand and assert you’re not marketing separately to “left” and “right” audiences. Fair enough, but there is a lesson here. Test your ideas. Get multiple perspectives. Align with your values, and more importantly, align with the values of your loyal followers. Outrage might sell a few more jeans today, but it doesn’t build loyalty tomorrow.
American Eagle wanted attention. You got it. They also got a case study on how clever can turn careless, how inheritance can reek as privilege, and how tapping into mindsets works better when all minds are considered.