American Eagle Jeans Sales Drop 9% Following Sydney Sweeney’s Controversial Campaign

According to the CinemaDrame news agency, sales of American Eagle jeans have not increased following Sydney Sweeney’s controversial ad campaign. RetailBrew has reported that sales of the jeans fell by 9% for the second consecutive week after the launch of the campaign featuring the Euphoria star.

The campaign began in late July with the slogan “Sydney Sweeney Jeans are Great,” but one week after it launched, jean sales were down 3.9% compared to the same period last year. This came despite American Eagle sales rising nearly 6% year-over-year in the two weeks before the campaign began.

Comparable companies such as Abercrombie & Fitch, Gap, and H&M saw sales declines of 3.3%, 2.8%, and 4.9%, respectively, in the week of August 3–9, suggesting the drop in American Eagle’s sales may not be directly caused by Sweeney’s campaign.

The wordplay in American Eagle’s ads between “Jeans” and “Genes”—which makes the slogan sound like “Sydney Sweeney’s Genes are Great”—has been criticized by many as “racist.” However, some political figures, including Donald Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance, have voiced support for Sweeney and the company.

Still, for an actress like Sweeney—who has multiple projects in the works—staying clear of such controversies may be preferable. At the premiere of Americana, she was confronted by someone over the ad campaign. In a video of the moment, a woman can be seen telling Sweeney: “Stop the ads—they’re racist.”