Marketing Mayhem: The Summer of Denim

By Annabel Adams, Staff Writer Edited by Savannah Stewart

Summer 2025’s swirl of denim craze presented pop culture with a fascinating marketing question: is all publicity good publicity? Actress Sydney Sweeney’s American Eagle jeans ad stirred viewer critiques about political messaging and disguised propaganda, while the choreography of girl musical group Katseye in a recent GAP jeans ad inspired an influx of TikTok dance trends and praise. Viewers are questioning Sweeney and her marketing team’s tactics, advertising classes are studying Katseye’s video, and the next generation of executives considers how they will handle future publicity.  

At the end of July, American Eagle released its video campaign series featuring Sweeney. The collection’s most popular ad shows the five-foot-three-inch, blonde-haired, blue-eyed actress, laying on her back, while the camera pans over body, moving from her legs to just below her head. Her top, or lack thereof, is an unbuttoned denim jacket exposing her stomach, the slightest bit of her chest, and her shoulder. Sweeney adjusts her body to button up her jeans while she says, “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color.” It’s not until the camera finally reaches her face that she looks directly into the lens and says, “My jeans are blue.” An omnipresent male-sounding voice continues, stating, “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans,” while large light-blue block text stuns the screen with the same quote. 

The double entendre in the voiceover has incited debates among social media users about whether or not the message of this ad promotes eugenics, “the practice or advocacy of controlled selective breeding of human populations (as by sterilization) to improve the populations' genetic composition,” as well as if American Eagle’s messaging is appropriate given the need for unification in today’s divisive political climate concerning race and ethnicity. Some politically left-leaning users argued that Sweeney and American Eagle intentionally played on the ambiguity between “jeans” and “genes,” promoting the United States’s already tumultuous political climate this year due to attacks on immigrants and minority communities, specifically regarding an influx of deportations and ICE raids targeting the Latine community. Meanwhile, some right-leaning users celebrated the ad and insisted that the left was overreacting.

Another debate between social media users explored Sweeney and her team possibly employing “rage-bait marketing,” a tactic that involves deliberately posting controversial digital content to increase engagement and views. In an NPR interview, marketing professional Allen Adamson argues that an ad has failed if no one is talking about it. Sweeney and her team clearly cracked the code of advertising, then—because it has everyone talking. However, it's a fair argument that with Sweeney promoting her new movie, Christy, and the filming of a new season of Euphoria in which she plays lead character Cassie, rage-bait marketing may not have been the wisest way to get people talking about her. Voices on news outlets and social media platforms may be buzzing about her ad, but is it worth their decreased public opinion from a young actress’s target audience of adolescents invested in pop culture? Sweeney’s American Eagle ad has proven that she can attract the attention and admiration of middle-aged men, yet her most popular project, Euphoria, is targeted towards young adults, featuring a diverse cast and tackling topics like racism, queerness, and drug use. 

Viewers have questioned how Sweeney’s team green lit the American Eagle advertisement, as it did not resonate with fashion advertising’s usual target audience of young women. As a result, the ad caused an overall less favorable opinion of Sweeney. On the corporate side, American Eagle’s executive marketing team is completely white, and when faced with criticism, the company released a statement defending the ad, saying, “‘Sydney Sweeney has great jeans’ is and always was about the jeans. Her jeans. Her story,” which could explain why the team doesn’t see a problem with the message. 

As if adding salt in the wound to Sweeney’s name as it exists in the current zeitgeist, GAP released its brand campaign video collaboration with KATSEYE less than a month after the American Eagle ad. Social media users quickly embraced KATSEYE’s ad, enjoying the diversity, the song choice of Kelis’ “Milkshake,” and the elaborate dance that accompanies it. TikTok was filled with edits and dance trends revolving around the ad, and users shared how it was a breath of fresh air after the American Eagle controversy. While Sweeney’s ad depicts a white woman feeling sexy in her jeans, viewers felt more represented in the GAP ad, which embraced fun femininity and appealed to a diverse group of people instead of outwardly catering to the male gaze in a time when women’s rights and autonomy are actively being targeted by the government.

The ad subtly but perfectly showcases feminine diversity through choosing a girl group made up entirely of ethnic and racial minorities, and writing the ad descriptions as “[this] is denim as you define it. Your individuality. Your self-expression,” and “[your] style. Powerful on your own. Even better together.” KATSEYE shared in a Glamour joint press statement “Gap didn’t ask us to fit in—they invited us to show up as we are” and “[we] got to perform as ourselves, bringing our style and culture to every frame. That’s what makes this moment so powerful.”

KATSEYE’s ad gained 20 million views in the first three days, and is currently sitting at 35 million views. GAP’s CEO, Richard Dickinson, said this campaign enabled a “record-breaking response” for the brand. KATSEYE is seeing the benefits from the ad as well through an increase in popularity. Even here at Syracuse University, public relations students have watched the ad in their classes, positively exposing the group to young people who may not have known

about them otherwise. This exposure could raise KATSEYE’s streams and video views across platforms, as well as promote ticket sales for their upcoming debut tour, Beautiful Chaos, beginning in November.

KATSEYE’s team crafted an ad to appeal to youth of all races and ethnicities, showcasing the beauty and fierceness in diversity. 

© 2025 by FETCH COLLECTIVE