Sex Sells: American Eagle Stock Soars Again as the Right Embraces the Sydney Sweeney 'Great Jeans' Ad Campaign

John Angelillo. Shutterstock Images.

By now I've spent enough time on this spinning blue marble to pick up on a few long term, one might even say, historic trends. Major shifts in the cultural, social and political landscape that Young Balls me would have missed back in my formative years. 

In broad strokes, for much of my life, the American left tended to be distrustful of authority, deeply suspicious toward the "Intelligence Community," and extremely pro-free speech. Whereas the right leaned toward seeing federal law enforcement as forces for good, and censorship as necessary to promote decency and protect our values. Which is why you had conservatives slapping warning labels on CDs and liberals defending bands like 2 Live Crew as they were rapping about "face down/ass up" sex, as seen in one of the underrated SNL skits from its peak era.

But over the past 25 years or so, the extremes on both ends of the sociopolitical spectrum seemed to have switched sides. It's the center-left who have supported the authorities through things like Covid restrictions and censoring social media. While the center-right has decrying the so-called Deep State and demanding something close to unfettered free speech. I mean, it wasn't that long ago that the ACLU was going to court to defend Illinois Nazis' right to march and the right was trying to ban porn. But the roles have reversed. 

These are just a few examples, but the trend has been across a whole range of issues.  Proving my theory that one of the smartest songs in Rock history is The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again":

There's nothing in the street

Looks any different to me

And the slogans are effaced, by-the-bye

And the parting on the left

Is now parting on the right

And the beards have all grown longer overnight

Which brings us to the biggest controversy of our times, which demonstrates how the two opposing forces have switched ends like they're between sets in a cosmic game of political volleyball. As Devlin covered Monday:

So now it's the parting on the left who's outraged by an objectively beautiful woman modeling denim pants. And the parting on the right is celebrating the fact everyone is horny for her. 

To the former, this is just the first step before all the non-Sydney Sweeney-looking undesirables start getting rounded up, forced into train cars, and the Final Solution begins:

Advertisement

To the latter, she's promoting Truth, Justice, and the American Way. From conservative US Senators:

To the Department of Defense:

To the Vice President of the United States:

To the Commander in Chief himself:

Advertisement

From Day 1 of this campaign, it proved to be good for American Eagle's bottom (no pun intended, but there it is) line, as Hubbs pointed out:

And a week and a half later, all the oxygen both sides have given this absurd controversy has continued to be pumped directly into American Eagle's stock price:

Fox Business - President Donald Trump’s praise for actress Sydney Sweeney's new ad campaign on Sunday may have boosted American Eagle Outfitter’s (AEO) stock value. 

The stock hit a two-month-high intraday as Trump’s praise for Sweeney’s ad made the media rounds. The rally helped curb year-to-date losses for the shares, which remain down 20.3% year-to-date. 

The stock had its highest close since Feb. 26, and its largest percent increase since Aug. 3, 2000, almost exactly 25 years ago to the day.

Whomever in that company first proposed the idea of putting America's current It Girl celebrity in a pair of America's quintessential clothing item, deserves a promotion and a massive raise. You'd think "Put Gorgeous Woman in Sexy Clothes, Sell Them" would be the simplest of ideas. But that doesn't make it any less ingenious.

Because my theory is that AE saw all this coming. On a grand scale, they read the room. They figured out exactly what to say in order to trigger this reaction. They found the cultural fault line, dropped a nuke, and started this Magnitude 9.0 quake. With basically no risk them hurting sales the way some other companies have when they've weighed in on social issues. I mean, not to paint with a broad brush, but I don't see a lot of potential American Eagle jeans customers when I watch videos of women needing to "calm" themselves before they can even discuss the ads:

Advertisement

This whole endeavor has either been the result of Galaxy Brain strategy, or the most serendipitous stroke of dumb luck in the history of US business. Either way, it's the kind of thing they'll be studying in Marketing classes for generations to come. And it's certainly not doing America's thriving Sydney Sweeney industry any harm, either: