With fall weather (hopefully) right around the corner, we will soon see a wardrobe necessity back in everyone’s outfit rotation: jeans. No matter the trends of fast fashion, jeans have remained a constant in the fashion industry. From rips and flares to skinny and baggy, well-worn denim is loved by all. But with only so many cuts and washes, jeans don’t catch the eyes of shoppers like other quick-to-go fashion trends do. So, what a surprise it was to see a jean scandal take hold of the internet a few weeks ago. Hold on to your belts as we talk about the bloody details of the “jean war” between American Eagle and Gap.
Battle Field
Let’s set the scene: It’s Wednesday, July 23, you open up your phone for a quick morning scroll, still half asleep, and the first thing lighting up your screen is Sydney Sweeney. But, she’s not in her normal flashy attire for a movie or TV show premiere; instead, she’s dressed head to toe in denim. Specifically, American Eagle denim.
The “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans” campaign was the first shot in this advertising war. The concept of the ad is pretty simple, in fact, it’s exactly what the name states. A one-minute ad convincing viewers that Sydney Sweeney has great jeans, and “you can too” if you buy from American Eagle. But the incorporation of one specific word play is what sparked the controversy; the interchangeable use of “jeans” and “genes.”
Sweeney describes the basic process of how “genes are passed on from parents to offspring,” while listing off her own physical characteristics. Although Sydney Sweeney is beautiful, she is far from the face of diversity. Between her blonde hair and blue eyes, the comparison of “genes” and “jeans,” and the implication of Sweeney’s jeans (or “genes”) being the best, let’s just say audiences were not pleased by the underlying eugenic message of the ad.
Let’s fast forward a little bit; it’s now mid-August, and a new company has entered the battlefield: Gap. Their jean campaign, “Better in Denim,” features the rising musical group KATSEYE. With six members from all around the world, KATSEYE has been labelled a “global girl group,” reaching and resonating with a diverse audience because of how many girls can see someone who represents them.
The pop group dances along to an upbeat backing track of the Y2K classic “Milkshake,” which brings a sense of nostalgia. It’s fast, fun, and above all, catchy. A stark contrast to the American Eagle ad, which, in comparison, seems bleak and defiant of inclusion. Overall, the use of a staple playlist song, a dance that can be quickly transformed for TikTok, and the timeliness to compete with American Eagle, the ad is honestly the perfect recipe for virality. It has everything social media loves: entertainment, relatability and scandal.
AfterMath
After American Eagle released its ad, the public worked quickly to bash the company for promoting eugenics. In hindsight, picking Sydney Sweeney wasn’t the best choice as their representative if the company wanted to stay out of public scrutiny. Just a few months earlier, in May, Sweeney was in an ad for Dr. Squatch to promote her bathwater soap, which got attention for its, at best, questionable messaging due to the strange and provocative nature of the ad.
Consumers were very vocal about their disappointment in the brand, and in true Gen-Z fashion, TikTok became the main place where the controversy was battled out. Each video racked up millions of views and hundreds of thousands of likes, one of the top liked videos even plainly saying, “Is this subtle eugenics?” in the caption.
And what about Gap? With its campaign capturing the attention of social media for weeks, Gap earned a valued spot in the marketplace. Personally, before the KATSEYE ad, Gap wasn’t on my radar as a company worth shopping at. Its target demographic was always a bit older than me, and its styles reflected that, too. But this campaign changed that. Both partnering with KATSEYE and how swiftly TikTok took to the dance transformed how younger consumers perceived the brand, ultimately strengthening it as a competitor in the current marketplace. With almost 40 million views on YouTube, 145 million views on TikTok, and over 800k TikTok posts under the song “Milkshake,” it’s hard not to know about the ad, and with how memorable it is, you surely are missing out if you haven’t seen it yet.
Conclusion
There is nothing new about companies competing for consumers’ business, but the media’s conflict over American Eagle and Gap has left an impression like no other. The “jean war” is both a warning and a promise to other companies of how strong a marketing tool social media has become. One bad ad can result in getting on the wrong side of audiences and being cancelled, while going viral can alter the trajectory of the company and revitalize it in the marketplace. But the tricky thing about going to war? Only one side can win.