Despite the criticism it’s faced for the controversial campaign, our exclusive survey of US consumers with Kantar found the vast majority are still likely to buy from the brand.
American Eagle's Sydney Sweeney campaign
American Eagle Outfitters has faced a week of scrutiny for its ad campaign featuring the blonde-haired, blue-eyed actor Sydney Sweeney. From mainstream media to LinkedIn feeds, it seems everyone has chimed in on whether the denim brand deliberately issued a racist ‘dog whistle’ for a campaign that ran with the pun: “Sydney Sweeney has great genes.”
The controversy has reached the highest levels, with President Donald Trump even taking to his platform, Truth Social, to defend the retailer.
“Sydney Sweeney, a registered Republican, has the HOTTEST ad out there,” Trump wrote, “Go get ’em, Sydney!”
After the post, the American Eagle Outfitters share price jumped by 24%, its biggest daily gain since August 2000.
As marketers have continued to debate the real meaning behind the work, The Drum wanted to find out what the American public actually thinks. Working with Kantar, we surveyed 1,000 Americans on the campaign, and the results were surprising.
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First, here’s the breakdown of the respondents.
The gender split of those surveyed was almost equal: 47.3% identified as men, and 52.4% identified as women. When it came to age, 17.6% were between 18 and 24 years old, 21.4% were 25–34, 22.5% were 35-44, 18.4% were 45-54 and 20.1% were 55-64.
The majority of the respondents were white (76.8%), while 1.9% identified as American Indian or Alaska Native, 9.3% as Black or African American, 8.9% as Asian or Pacific and 2.5% as other 2.5%.
Just over one-fifth of respondents (21.1%) identified Spanish, Hispanic, or Latino.
In terms of their location, 17.6% of respondents were from Northeastern states, 21.7% were from the Midwest, 35.9% from the South and 24.8% from the West.
To be eligible, all participants had to confirm they were aware of the American Eagle advert. People were asked if they had heard about a selection of recent national stories, including but not limited to announcements on tariffs, developments in the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, the death of WWE star Hulk Hogan and the online conversation around a new American Eagle campaign featuring Sydney Sweeney. The study took forward only those who were aware that it was on the news agenda.
62% of women and 64% of men surveyed said they were aware it was controversial from a racial perspective, and 53% of men and women, respectively, said they were aware of controversy from a gender or feminist perspective.
The big question everyone has, including the marketing team at American Eagle, is – will this hurt or help the bottom line? Trump’s endorsement might have sent its stock price soaring, but how will it impact people’s likelihood to shop with the brand?
It’s still early days but the data suggests that American Eagle won’t suffer any financial consequences. In fact, it seems to have boosted the brand.
The majority of men (62%) and half of women (50%) said they were very or somewhat likely to consider American Eagle in the future after seeing, hearing or reading about this ad campaign, even if they don’t typically wear the brand or style of clothing. Just 15% of men and 25% of women said it made them unlikely to consider the brand.
When broken down by age, 73% of 18-24 year olds said they were likely to consider it, while 69% of 25-34 year olds and 66% of 35-44 year olds said the same.
The majority (57%) of respondents who identified as white said they were likely to still consider the brand after the campaign controversy, while 47% of those who identified as Black or African American agreed. It was the same trend for Asian or Pacific (61%), and American Indian (47%) respondents.
Among those who identified as Spanish, Hispanic, or Latino, 67% said they were likely to consider the brand.
When it came to how it would affect their purchasing behaviour, 49% of women and 62% of men said the campaign made them likely to purchase. Breaking that down by age, 73% of those aged 18-24 said it made them likely to buy, which was also true of those aged 25-34 (70%) and 35-44 year olds (62%).
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Again, the majority of those who identified as white (56%) said it made them likely to buy. It was the same story for Indian Americans (53%), and Asian or Pacific Americans (63%) respondents.
Almost half (48%) of Black or American-American respondents said it made them likely to purchase from the brand, compared with 28% who said it made them unlikely to buy from there.
Among those who identified as Spanish, Hispanic, or Latino, 69% said they were likely to purchase.
However, this seems to conflict with data sent to The Drum by Pass By, which measures retail footfall.
It found American Eagle’s in-store visits fell last week as a direct result of the backlash. For the week ending August 2, nationwide store visits were down 3.9%. This was most acutely felt in stores in the Southern states, where visits were down 9.25%. Yet the Kantar survey found 52% of those in the South were still likely to buy from the brand.
In Northeastern states, where the Kantar survey found 64% were still likely to buy from the company, Pass By said in-store visits were up 7.36%.
Valeria Piaggio, Kantar’s head of inclusive growth, said: “Angry consumers tend to voice their opinions, and they tend to be at the extremes of the ideological spectrum. Those with a middle-of-the-road view, which is the majority, don’t often comment on advertising. That’s why conversations that touch on diversity and inclusion topics tend to be overwhelmingly negative, especially if they are connected to politics.
“But given the wall of noise the American Eagle ad has created, we may see more than their short statement that ‘great jeans look good on everyone’ to come. We know that brands tend to get less backlash if they focus on what they’re actually doing, in this case, a cause-related campaign. Our advice for brands is to focus on actions. Avoid politicising your brand messaging - and stress test it with enough people to avoid it being politicised for you. Brands win by persuading more people - that means all of the market, and not just part of it.”
In the immediate aftermath of the criticism, American Eagle removed some campaign videos from its social channels. However, it has since responded simply by stating that the campaign “is and always has been about the jeans.”
“Her jeans. Her story,” it said via a post on Instagram. “We’ll continue to celebrate how everyone wears their AE jeans with confidence, their way."
Sydney Sweeney has not commented.
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