During the summer of 2025, two major denim brands released advertisements featuring celebrities who had recently gained lots of traction in the media. One brand, American Eagle, hired Sydney Sweeney to promote their 2025 denim campaign, which included the “Sydney Jean.” The other brand, GAP, used a recently debuted girl group, KATSEYE, to promote their own 2025 denim campaign. Both brands sparked media traction with their advertisements, one being scrutinized for its questionable script and poor marketing strategy, the other being praised for its diversity and entertainment.
The American Eagle advertisement came out in late July of 2025 with a commercial that was shown throughout all platforms. The campaign’s tagline, “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans,” caused media backlash for promoting the “ideal” look that is unachievable for most people. Even worse, many thought the advertisement played into eugenics ideology by promoting Sydney Sweeney’s “genes” as a blonde-haired, blue-eyed, white, able-bodied individual, instead of the campaign’s jeans they were trying to sell. Many saw this aspect of the campaign as alarming and insensitive, given the current political climate. Sydney Sweeney had already received backlash for previous misogynistic advertising campaigns for brands targeted towards men. One of those brands, Dr. Squatch, collaborated with Sweeney on a new bar of soap, “Sydney’s Bathwater Bliss.” Many sought after the limited edition soap because it allegedly used Sweeney’s bathwater as an ingredient. This made the product more desirable to men because of its sexual nature. Many compared the two campaigns because of how Sweeney used her body to sell both products.
Weeks later, GAP debuted their summer denim campaign with global pop group KATSEYE. The group features six female singers with members from the Philippines, South Korea, Switzerland and the United States. The advertising campaign’s slogan, “Better in Denim,” varied drastically from American Eagle with its inclusive nature. The campaign aimed to include all people, including people from sizes XXS-3X. Along with the slogan, the campaign also had a two-minute music video featuring the girl group dancing to the song “Milkshake” by Kelis. This went along well with the resurgence of Y2K, which the campaign based a lot of their denim styling off of. The campaign was praised for its entertainment and focus on the clothing line and less on the people wearing the clothes.
The feedback for both campaigns was vastly different. While one was criticized and described as tone-deaf, the other was viewed as genius, entertaining and well-loved. Many people were frustrated with the American Eagle campaign because it focused more on Sweeney’s body rather than the denim itself. Because Sydney Sweeney was the face of this campaign, it led many people to believe that they had to have a certain look in order to wear American Eagle’s jeans. Although GAP used six women who fit the societal standards of beauty, they focused less on what they looked like and more on what they were wearing. Even after their advertisement, American Eagle has reported that the brand has not lost any revenue despite all of the hate directed towards them. On the other hand, GAP has reported that their sales have skyrocketed and their advertisement with KATSEYE is their most-viewed advertisement.
Overall, we agree that there is a lot that is wrong with the American Eagle campaign. As two women who consume media every day, it was tough to see American Eagle’s campaign because of all the negativity it portrayed. When reviewing both campaigns, we concluded that GAP’s advertisement was far better than American Eagle’s in many ways. We appreciated that GAP used strategic marketing to draw viewers in, especially young viewers, and keep them entertained. After watching the American Eagle advertisement, it left us with an uneasy feeling and did not capture our attention at all. In addition, we thought the GAP advertisement brought a feeling of nostalgia and happiness in a time where the country seems to be divided.
