Everybody has an opinion on American Eagle’s controversial Sydney Sweeney advertisements—together with President Donald Trump, whose reward on Fact Social has despatched the corporate’s inventory hovering to Y2K heights.
“Sydney Sweeney, a registered Republican, has the HOTTEST advert on the market,” Trump posted on his platform on Monday. “Go get ’em, Sydney!”
Following Trump’s endorsement, inventory within the model’s mum or dad group, American Eagle Outfitters, jumped by 24% on Monday, marking its largest day by day acquire since August 2000.
During the last week, the denim retailer and Euphoria actress have confronted controversy over their “Sydney Sweeney Has Nice Denims” collaboration.
The autumn push, constructed across the pun that Sweeney has nice “genes,” featured wordplay-heavy social advertisements and a Occasions Sq. billboard.
Whereas American Eagle’s inventory initially jumped 7% after the advertisements debuted, days later it confronted claims that the artistic route and replica promoted “pro-eugenics” beliefs, sparking backlash in an America grappling with a rightward shift.
The corporate eliminated a number of the marketing campaign movies from its social channels within the days following the media firestorm. Nonetheless, it didn’t handle the controversy till Friday (Aug. 1) when it broke its silence in an Instagram put up.
“‘Sydney Sweeney Has Nice Denims’ is and at all times was concerning the denims,” the corporate mentioned. “Her denims. Her story.”
“We’ll proceed to rejoice how everybody wears their AE denims with confidence, their approach. Nice denims look good on everybody,” the assertion continued.
It has posted a number of extra belongings from the marketing campaign within the days since, together with a behind-the-scenes with Sweeney and stylist Molly Dickson, and different photographs that includes a extra various vary of fashions.
American Eagle is the newest instance of a meme inventory: a inventory that features or loses reputation based mostly on social media hype or criticism. Different examples embrace GoPro and Krispy Kreme.
ADWEEK reached out to American Eagle concerning Trump’s assertion, however it had not responded by the point of publication.
The corporate is scheduled to report its quarterly monetary ends in late August, which can give an early indication of how the marketing campaign is translating into gross sales.
