How a Denim Ad Became a Narrative Threat for American Eagle

American Eagle likely expected its new back-to-school campaign with Sydney Sweeney to make headlines—just not like this.

What started as a denim-forward ad push featuring one of Gen Z’s biggest stars quickly turned into a case study in how fast brand narratives can spiral online. The campaign included a video of Sweeney in a denim-on-denim look, quipping, “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring… My jeans are blue,” as the camera lingered on her blue eyes and figure.

But the wordplay didn’t land as intended. Online audiences immediately pushed back, not just on the creative, but on the deeper implications behind it. Critics argued the ad evoked outdated ideals and presented Sweeney — a conventionally attractive, white, blonde, blue-eyed woman — as the embodiment of “good genes.” The backlash escalated fast, with some calling the ad regressive, sexist, and even reminiscent of eugenicist rhetoric.

A Campaign That Escaped Its Frame

From the outside, the creative was designed to be cheeky and nostalgic — denim, Americana, and a playful nod to genetics. But in today’s cultural climate, brands don’t get to frame the full narrative anymore. The internet does.

At PeakMetrics, we started tracking the campaign the day it launched — and the response was immediate:

Between July 23 and July 29, there were 161,970 mentions on X (formerly Twitter) about the campaign
The conversation surged on July 24 and peaked on July 29 at noon ET, with 10,000 posts in a single hour
77% of all Sydney Sweeney mentions during that period were tied to the campaign
More than 53,000 posts used backlash language like “tone-deaf,” “misogynistic,” “white supremacy,” and “setting women back”
There were 5,506 posts on X mentioning Sydney Sweeney alongside terms like boycott, cancel, or stop supporting—compared to 1,036 posts mentioning American Eagle in the same context

What started as a campaign about denim quickly became about something much bigger — power, identity, and representation. Doja Cat’s roast and waves of memes only added fuel, showing just how easily a message can be reframed in the public eye.

But Then, the Narrative Flipped

What makes this case even more interesting is what happened next.

According to PeakMetrics’s data provided exclusively to Retail Brew, favorability around the campaign rebounded. Between July 23 and August 1, 63.7% of posts across TikTok and X were favorable, while only 29.4% were unfavorable and 6.9% were neutral.

“I found the results slightly surprising,” our director of insights Molly Dwyer, shared with Retail Brew, “but not inexplicable, considering the way the campaign has found more voluble defenders on the right than critics elsewhere.”

As recently as July 28, favorable and unfavorable mentions were roughly even. But a surge in positive responses in the following days driven by right wing voices flipped the narrative—ultimately leaving American Eagle on stronger footing than many expected.

“Basically the favorable [to the campaign] side kept up the volume,” Dwyer said to Retail Brew. “They kept their foot on the gas, drawing this into the Fox News discourse, drawing this into the White House discourse, and there is nobody on the anti-American Eagle side” who is as impactfully “keeping this conversation going.”

When Perception Becomes Business Risk—and Opportunity

The campaign may have teetered on the edge of a reputational crisis, but its trajectory shows the power of narratives.

At PeakMetrics, we track this kind of escalation often. It’s not just about volume—it’s about velocity, tone, and amplification. Once a message gets reframed by the public, it can quickly become the defining lens through which a campaign — or even a brand — is viewed.

This case shows something critical: narratives don’t just shape opinion — they shape outcomes. But they can also shift again.

What Brands Can Learn

The Sydney Sweeney x American Eagle moment is a reminder that brands are no longer in full control of their stories—but they can still influence how those stories play out.

One of the most important lessons? Know how your brand leans—politically, culturally, and generationally—and be prepared to respond accordingly. If your brand has a perceived identity, the public will interpret your campaigns through that lens. What lands as cheeky for one audience might spark outrage in another.

It also underscores the need for narrative intelligence. Not just monitoring mentions, but understanding:

Which narratives are forming
Who is amplifying them
How much momentum they’re gaining
Whether they pose a reputational or business risk
How your brand’s existing perception might accelerate or diffuse the response

In a polarized and hyper-reactive environment, awareness of your brand’s position—intended or not—can be the difference between backlash and bounce-back.

Final Thought

What looked like a brewing crisis turned into a win. But it didn’t happen by accident.