Good Jeans, Bad Marketing: What We Can Learn From American Eagle’s Latest Miss

The backlash around American Eagle’s Sydney Sweeney campaign has been hard to ignore. 

What was meant to be a playful (and sexy?) jean ad quickly turned into one of the most controversial topics on the internet. 

Plenty of people have already broken down what went wrong in terms of visuals, language, and tone. 

We want to chat about what the overall takeaway for marketers is: campaigns only work when they’re in sync with the brand, the audience, and the moment.

This one really missed the mark. 

At a glance, the concept might have seemed like an obvious win. A recognizable face, a clever pun, and a big retail push for fall denim. But when the ad hit social, the response was immediately negative. The tone didn’t match the brand. The message didn’t land the way it was intended. And the cultural context didn’t seem to have been considered at all.

That’s where the disconnect happened. Not just in execution, but in overall awareness.

Marketing doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Every campaign lives within a broader cultural moment, whether the brand is trying to tap into it or not. And audiences are quick to call out messaging that feels tone-deaf, outdated, or disconnected from what’s actually happening in the world around them.

This is why it’s so important to slow down and ask the right questions before anything goes live. 

Does this reflect who we are as a brand? 

Does it align with how our audience sees us, and how they see themselves? 

Does it make sense in this particular moment, knowing everything else that’s happening in culture right now?

If the answer to any of those questions isn’t a clear yes, that’s a sign to take a step back. 

Trying to go viral or force relevance rarely works. 

What does work is consistency. Self-awareness. A real understanding of the people you’re talking to. 

The brands that do that well tend to get it right more often, not because they’re louder or flashier, but because they’re intentional.

The American Eagle campaign is a reminder that even a well-produced ad can fall flat if the strategy behind it isn’t grounded. When something feels out of step with the audience or disconnected from the brand’s usual voice, people notice. And they talk about it.

There’s no perfect way to predict how a campaign will land. But reading the room, knowing your voice, and putting your audience first is always a good place to start.