Sydney Sweeney is well on her way to becoming a bona fide A-list star in Hollywood, but now she’s become a Wall Street star too. She’s changing stock prices by putting on a pair of jeans.
This week, the clothing brand American Eagle unveiled a series of ads featuring Sweeney in alluring poses. The ads are simple, and they do nothing except fully embrace Sweeney’s natural visual appeal to sell their products.
This would have been nothing ten years ago, but now it’s revolutionary. In response, American Eagle’s stock prices have risen dramatically as investors predict a spike in sales. It’ll probably happen because these kinds of advertising tactics work—they always have.
To understand why this is a big deal, you’d need to have noticed the big changes happening in the advertising world. Modern ads have become more about conveying the right messaging than making the product you’re selling look appealing.
That’s resulted in the disappearance of more traditional approaches to product selling, like the once coveted position of “Guess Jeans Girl.” Instead, big companies have focused on ads that espouse social agendas and embrace what they perceive to be current political trends.
Usually, this is done to their detriment. There’s no evidence that social messaging ads have ever worked. However, politically motivated financial forces have made conforming to new models of ineffective and unappealing advertising the standard. Thanks to threats from activists and banks pushing ESG, companies have been too afraid to step outside it, even if doing so might help sell more products.
If you’re looking for recent examples, look at the car company Jaguar, which is imploding. They recently abandoned their timeless image, designed to convey power and sophistication, in favor of pink cars for, well, I’m not sure who they’re for. Robot aliens? That’s my best guess.
Jaguar’s marketing moves have been a clear disaster. It was obvious from the outset that this marketing campaign would destroy their company, but they did it anyway. As a result, they’re no longer selling cars at all. Their sales are nothing, and they’re basically done as a car brand.
Enter Sydney Sweeney, who made her fame largely on a willingness to be traditionally feminine and attractive. This attitude is now so unusual that her public profile has exploded, and she’s become the ideal pitch woman for any brand willing to risk the wrath of ESG overlords and choose profit over ideology. Given how the market has reacted, it seems Wall Street is ready to go back to profit over pandering, too.
American Eagle isn’t the first to jump on the Sydney Sweeney happy to be gorgeous bandwagon, but they are the biggest. Given the success they’re seeing for doing it, American Eagle won’t be the last.
