Plus: Sesame Street collabs with YouTube; NextStar CEO makes the case for local news.
This summer, American Eagle was at the center of controversy after an ad featuring actress Sydney Sweeny sparked backlash for its “great jeans/genes” wordplay, with some calling the brand out for what they said were racist undertones.
Others, including President Donald Trump, weighed in, praising the retailer’s approach.
Despite the divisive reactions, American Eagle leaders said this week during a Q2 earnings call that the campaign offered a “brand reset.”
“The American Eagle Sydney Sweeney campaign was intended to be a brand and business reset, and it has,” Craig Bommers, chief marketing officer, said during the call, per Investor’s Business Daily. “Sydney Sweeney sells great jeans. She is a winner. And in just six weeks, the campaign has generated unprecedented new customer acquisition.”
Altogether, the campaign drew 700,000 new customers and 40 billion impressions, with search for American Eagle climbing 186% WoW for the week ending Aug. 3, the outlet reports.
“To be clear, that consumer acquisition is coming from every single county in the U.S. This momentum is national, and it is pervasive,” Bommers said on the call.
The attention from the Sweeny campaign, coupled with the launch of a collaboration with NFL star Travis Kelce after the announcement of his engagement to Taylor Swift, has shown tremendous brand engagement.
“Now is our opportunity to continue to convert this buzz into business and to convert these new customers into repeat customers,” Bommers said.
Why it matters: American Eagle’s navigation of a divided cultural moment turned what could have been lasting reputational damage into a brand-defining inflection point.
Campaigns that provoke strong reactions have the potential for maximum reach and engagement, particularly when the brand stands behind its decisions.
In this case, American Eagle aimed to keep the campaign’s focus on the product, rather than the backlash – and it paid off.
Controversy can be tricky and it doesn’t always make sense to double down on something perceived as offensive, but it can also be a moment to take advantage of the buzz.
Aligning a brand with culturally relevant people, celebrities and moments also helps naturally drive the conversation, promoting engagement and opportunities for other areas of impact.
In this case, it was the “brand reset” they hoped for.
Editor’s Top Reads:
- Can you tell me how to get…to Sesame Street’s YouTube library? The beloved educational program announced Thursday that beginning in January 2026, YouTube would host the largest digital library of Sesame Street episodes. The deal includes hundreds of classic episodes, shorts and specials. “This partnership will also enable us to expand a series of workshops with YouTube creators, sharing our own best practices for content creation — allowing us to draw on our 50+ years of developing research-driven curriculum-backed media to inform children’s media creation beyond our own,” Sherri Rollins Westin, CEO of Sesame Workshop, said on LinkedIn. Using the platform to create new kinds of content and workshops can boost interest and reach. Not only will this medium have the potential for audience growth, it also offers a chance for diverse brand collaborations and influencer marketing, while delivering a product where people increasingly prefer – social channels.
- Despite a challenging time for local news stations, NextStar CEO Perry Sook is calling local media “a lucrative place to be” after the broadcaster is making moves to purchase Tegna for $6.2 billion. “The merged company would own 265 stations in 44 states and the District of Columbia, representing 80% of U.S. TV households,” Deadline reports. Sook said that while local media doesn’t appear at high-profile awards shows or on the red carpet, they’re the ones showing up to the “opening of supermarkets, of car dealerships, of furniture stores,” he said. “At our essence, we are a local service business …All transactions…happen at a local level, and we are at that point of purchase with a branded relationship with both the viewer and the business owner … and it’s prohibitively cost ineffective to try and build something to compete with that.” Sook’s point is that local media serves an important role in communities around the country. There is still value in it even with a growing appetite for new forms of content creation and more sources of independent media. Brands still depend on local media. Granted, Sook has a strong interest in making this case, but he isn’t wrong. Local news is still a part of any savvy communicators’ PR playbook.
- A health care chain in Santa Barbara is facing blowback after several employees created a now-deleted TikTok where the workers were seen standing over bodily fluids left behind from patient exams with captions like, “Make sure you leave your health care workers sweet gifts like these!” while employees smiled and mocked, the New York Post reports. The urgent care facility, Sansum Clinic, is a partner to the larger Northern California nonprofit, Sutter Health. On Wednesday, Sansum Clinic and Sutter Health released a statement on Instagram saying they were concerned and investigating the video as well as the employees responsible. It said: “Patient trust and dignity are always our top priority and any behavior that violates those standards is unacceptable.” Sansum Clinic later said all employees involved had been fired. Taking immediate action here was critical. This is something most people find offensive and dehumanizing and it’s important that the organization addressed the incident with clarity, transparency and sensitivity. Internally, they’ll have to address company culture and reiterate policies and privacy standards with employees. Externally, emphasizing patient trust and dignity while making sure those employees are no longer a part of their team is the right – and only – move to make.
Courtney Blackann is a communications reporter. Connect with her on LinkedIn or email her at courtneyb@ragan.com.
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