American Eagle Sydney Sweeney campaign ‘hottest ad’: Trump

Shares of American Eagle surged more than 15% on Monday after President Donald Trump complimented the retailer’s marketing campaign with actress Sydney Sweeney.

“Sydney Sweeney, a registered Republican, has the ‘HOTTEST’ ad out there. It’s for American Eagle, and the jeans are ‘flying off the shelves.’ Go get ’em Sydney!” Trump wrote on his social media site Truth Social not long after markets opened. 

Shortly after Trump’s post, shares of American Eagle surged, and were still trading about 18% higher in early afternoon trading. Monday’s gains come a little over a week after American Eagle first announced that the “Euphoria” star would headline its fall marketing campaign with the slogan: “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans.”

Initially, the stock surged in an apparent bout of meme stock mania, but over the past week, shares of the company have been down as American Eagle has faced criticism about the campaign. That slump rebounded on Monday when Trump weighed in on the discourse.

The slogan American Eagle chose for the campaign — “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans” — has led some far-left critics to say the remark was a double entendre. Instead of being about pants, it was really about the actress’s genetics and the fact that she has blonde hair and blue eyes, critics said. The ad also faced pushback more widely for being overly sexualized and out of touch, reminiscent of previous marketing norms that many say no longer resonate with the public. 

American Eagle has stayed largely quiet on the matter — releasing a brief statement on its Instagram account on Friday that said the slogan “is and always was about the jeans.” 

“We’ll continue to celebrate how everyone wears their AE jeans with confidence, their way,” the company said. “Great jeans look good on everyone.”

The saga highlights the tightrope that marketers are walking when deciding what types of ads to run and the audiences they should be targeting when consumer attention is harder than ever to win and maintain. Bud Lite’s ill-fated Dylan Mulvaney collaboration and the subsequent impact on its sales and stock price, highlighted how things can go wrong when companies release marketing that some may consider “woke.” On the other hand, American Eagle’s campaign is now showing the other side of that coin – what can happen when a company releases marketing that isn’t “woke” and perhaps more accepted on the cultural right. 

In the leadup to American Eagle’s campaign with Sweeney, the company has been struggling to grow sales, and the marketing blitz is one of the many things it’s doing to reverse that negative slump.

It’s too early to say if the campaign has positively or negatively impacted sales, but it has made American Eagle more top of mind with shoppers. Google trend data shows search interest for American Eagle is at its highest level in more than 20 years. Whether or not that search interest translates to more shoppers buying jeans from American Eagle will be more clear when the retailer reports earnings, which is expected in the next few weeks.

As of Friday’s close, shares of American Eagle were down more than 27% so far this year as the company grapples with larger macroeconomic concerns related to tariffs, consumer spending and its own merchandising missteps. 

Earlier this year, the company said it would take a $75 million write-down in spring and summer merchandise after it pulled its full-year guidance due to slow sales, steep discounting and a volatile macroeconomic environment.

For its current quarter, American Eagle said in May that it expects revenue to fall 5%, comparable sales to be down 3% and gross margin to be lower compared with the prior year. Its operating income for the second quarter is expected to be between $40 million and $45 million.