Customers were “clamoring” for the new campaign, says American Eagle chief marketing officer Craig Brommers.
Sydney Sweeney returns with new American Eagle ad
After courting controversy, Sydney Sweeney is back with another American Eagle jeans ad.
Provided by American Eagle
- Sydney Sweeney is starring in a new American Eagle campaign.
- Her previous collab with the brand played on “genes” and “jeans” and sparked backlash – but was also the most successful in the brand’s history.
- The collaboration donates a portion of every sale to the Crisis Text Line.
It’s time to say hello to “Syd.”
Months after conversation – and controversy – erupted over Sydney Sweeney’s American Eagle jeans ad campaign, the star is back for a new summer spin on shorts with the retailer.
“What brand am I wearing?” Sweeney asks in the commercial, posing in denim shorts against a blue sky backdrop, while smiling and playing with her hair. “Yeah, that one,” she says, as the words “SYD FOR SHORT” flash across the screen.
It’s a tongue-in-cheek nod to the fervor around the original jeans campaign, which was “born out of the idea that we wanted to work with the No. 1 It girl on the No. 1 jeans campaign of 2025,” says Craig Brommers, American Eagle’s chief marketing officer.
Syd exemplifies “the true self, the authentic person, the more casual version of that Sydney Sweeney persona,” Brommers says, and the collaboration is part of a “throughline” that “resonates” with consumers.
“Our American Eagle customer base really loved the duality” of the “Euphoria” star, 28, Brommers tells USA TODAY. “Yes, there is the actress on the red carpet with box office hits and Emmy-nominated performances on streaming shows. But there’s also this very carefree, casual, real side, the girl-next-door side.”
Sydney Sweeney jeans ad sparked backlash – and American Eagle success
Some retailers might have moved on after their first collab generated so much controversy.
The fall campaign, released last July, was a play on “genes” and “jeans,” proclaiming that Sweeney “has great jeans.” “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color,” Sweeney said in the commercial. “My jeans are blue.”
The internet pounced. Some said the commercial, with a conventionally attractive, white, thin, blonde woman with blue eyes at its center, was upholding Sweeney as the beauty standard. Others said the ad was regressive, highlighting a blonde bombshell and catering to the objectifying male gaze. And some argued out it had references to eugenics, or the belief that some genetic features are superior to others.
President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance both added commentary. Sweeney “has the ‘HOTTEST’ ad out there. It’s for American Eagle, and the jeans are ‘flying off the shelves.’ Go get ’em Sydney!” Trump posted in August.
At the time, the company released a response that said, in part, “Great jeans look good on anyone.” And the company CEO said in a Wall Street Journal interview, “We stand behind what we did.”
Now, Brommers reveals just how thrilled the company was with the results. American Eagle Outfitters’ stock jump by 22%. “A vast, vast, vast majority of Americans understood that the campaign was about jeans,” Brommers says. “It was one story, her story.”
Sweeney, in a November GQ interview, said “the reaction definitely was a surprise,” a sentiment she reiterated to People in December, adding, “I did it because I love the jeans and love the brand. I don’t support the views some people chose to connect to the campaign. Many have assigned motives and labels to me that just aren’t true.”
The campaign “certainly drove jeans sales,” Brommers says. “American Eagle has a store in all 50 states and during that campaign, we saw new customer acquisition grow in every single county in America. It is a fact that it was the most successful campaign in the history of the American Eagle brand.”
Brommers says the ad had more than 55 billion impressions and was “the most talked about advertising campaign of the year, maybe of the decade – sometimes ChatGPT tells me of the century.”
New American Eagle Sydney Sweeney campaign will ‘turn the volume down’
Given those results, Brommers says American Eagle consumers were “clamoring for a new chapter to this partnership,” focusing on the word “new.”
“When we thought about what we could do next together, it wasn’t about going backwards – it was about going forward,” Brommers says.
“The world is curious and the world will be talking when we launch the campaign,” Brommers says. “As we learned in the fall campaign, there is noise, but there are also facts as well, and we’re excited to see where this campaign takes our brand.”
The new ad aims to lean into joy and away from the previous campaign, Brommers says, though its language directly winks at the controversy.
“The real world is very noisy right now, and sometimes you want to turn the volume down, just be your true self and then live your life in American Eagle jean shorts in the summer,” Brommers says.
What exactly is that “noise”? “It could mean anything,” Brommers says, “It could be geopolitical. It could be the harsh realities of social media. Sometimes it could be pain that someone is going through in their own life, their mental health, whatever it is. I think that it’s not for me to define someone’s noise.
“This idea that you know yourself and you should embrace yourself and your beliefs and get out there and live your own life is a message that has been with the American Eagle brand for many years now. … In a particularly noisy moment out in the real world, we hope that this campaign brings that hope to to our audience.”
Sydney Sweeney ‘very involved’ in American Eagle campaign
Brommers seems to suggest this won’t be the last collaboration between American Eagle and their “It girl.”
And for those wondering, Sweeney is “very involved,” Brommers says.
“She’s in there selecting shots and selecting angles and selecting story lines that she likes the most. So this is not about a payday. This is not about someone showing up and cashing a check,” Brommers says. “This partnership is deep. It is authentic, and it’s someone who is a very savvy business person and very understanding about her brand.”
The new products, like the original, support the Crisis Text Line, which offers free, 24/7, confidential mental health support to anyone in need; 100% of the net proceeds from the shorts and jeans will be donated the nonprofit. The limited-edition denim styles feature a butterfly motif in honor of the philanthropic partnership, a cause close to Sweeney’s heart.
“Being in the Sydney Sweeney business has been great for us,” Brommers says, adding Sweeney “will always drive conversation” in a “partnership [that] has been so culturally defining.”
Contributing: Anna Kaufman, Brendan Morrow, USA TODAY
