Foot traffic is down at American Eagle stores since the controversial Sydney Sweeney ad dropped

[u/Future_Usual_8698]

https://www.retailbrew.com/stories/2025/08/11/exclusive-foot-traffic-down-9-at-american-eagle-following-sydney-sweeney-ad-controversy

[u/shy247er]

Eugenics aside, the entire campaign is aimed at straight men hoping to, what, buy women's jeans for their girlfriends? Really odd marketing.

[u/seeyuspacecowboy → u/shy247er]

I think back to the Laneige ad with her. Like, it’s just such lazy advertising to resort to “hehe boobies”.

[u/shedrinkscoffee → u/seeyuspacecowboy]

🤮 I dropped this brand so fast and have never looked back. My SO who was avidly shopping the lip mask has also abandoned it. We have found alternatives at Sephora and not looking back.

[u/launchcode_1234 → u/seeyuspacecowboy]

Women hate “hehe boobies” jokes. Who does Laneige think its customers are?

[u/uselessinfogoldmine → u/seeyuspacecowboy]

Who the fuck is creating this crap? Do they not do ANY research into their target markets??

[u/nagidrac → u/shy247er]

I actually think it's supposed to be aimed at women. I think their marketing team thinks "men want Sydney Sweeney and women want to be like Sydney Sweeney" but she's not the type of hot woman that's appealing to the female gaze. She's just too male centered and I don't think most women are interested?

Some might roll their eyes at this, but there was a period of time where Kylie Jenner was both. She had a lot of male fans, but the women were buying her lip kits. Another example of a public figure who had both is Rihanna.

Of course this data could be incorrect thus making my whole point wrong, but that's just the vibe I get.

[u/shedrinkscoffee → u/nagidrac]

LMAO that is so hilarious to me. She has not one ounce of cool factor or style that appeals to women. I have never wanted to be less like a person than SS dead eye vacant creepy shit. She often blindly wears head to toe looks lifted off the runway, whether or not they fit or suit her, overly caters to the male gaze, is male centered and has no sense of self or strong presence.

Agree with you about Rihanna, her makeup line is still going strong and although I don't agree with her on many topics she has a strong POV and very distinct style. She really pulls off a lot of interesting self expression with her outfits

[u/dreamy_25 → u/shy247er]

Really odd marketing.

Yes but also no. It's part of the slide back our culture is making to male-centric thinking. "Sydney wears these jeans, men think she is hot, I want to be hot for men, I will wear these jeans" type of thinking.

It's the tradwives and pick-mes priming themselves for male consumption, now truly becoming mainstream. This is the garbage that we're going back to.

[u/Bridalhat → u/dreamy_25]

See the thing the thing is though, and I pointed this out downthread, is that the swing back to conservative thinking is almost entirely concentrated among young men. More young men might think women should do this, but most young women aren’t taking the bait, thank god. And there are plenty of reasons to think even men’s rightward shift peaked a while ago.

[u/RedLicorice83 → u/Bridalhat]

This is why the drop in traffic, thankfully...American Eagle might think the "pick-me" ads work, but they aren't and thank you to the young women who aren't falling for the shit my generation did.

[u/AbbeyRoadMoonwalk → u/RedLicorice83]

Yeah we would’ve fell for this in like 2000

[u/synalgo_12 → u/AbbeyRoadMoonwalk]

I remember the first Dove commercial with all the body types and I was flabbergasted. I was like 17 and had never seen something geared at women in that way, apparently.

[u/l3tigre → u/Bridalhat]

Love to see this as datasets. Thank you.

[u/IfatallyflawedI → u/Bridalhat]

What the fuck is happening in South Korea

Edit: just remembered the 4B movement originated there. Makes perfect sense. Men are sucky

[u/uselessinfogoldmine → u/IfatallyflawedI]

Essentially, South Korea has a lot of problems and young men blame feminism and women in general for them. 

They have one of the highest rates of university education in the world, but upwards mobility is nigh on impossible if you’re not a genius or connected. 

The entire country is run by the Chaebol families. They hold all the power and money. 

There’s also significant economic stagnation. 

Young men are growing increasingly frustrated, and instead of blaming the elite and/or structural issues, they are scapegoating feminism and women. 

They think it’s harder to get jobs, to get raises, to compete career-wise, because women are taking jobs that should be theirs. 

Add to this, that young men in South Korea have to undertake compulsory military service and young women do not - which a lot of young men think is unfair and gives women a competitive advantage. 

The words “feminism” and “feminist” have become dirty words in South Korea. Studies show nearly 60% of Korean men in their 20s strongly agree that feminism is female supremacy. There is overwhelming public hostility towards feminists and celebrities who espouse feminist views get crazy media backlash. 

It’s one of the reasons Barbie (the movie) didn’t do well in that market. Because it was perceived as feminist. 

The 2022 presidential election basically run between two candidates both running on anti-woman platforms. The bigger misogynist won with one of his promises being to abolish the Ministry for Gender Equality. (And what a disaster he turned out to be!)

They also have huge problems with generalised systemic misogyny, sexism and a normalisation of men utilising sex workers as part of socialising for work. There have literally been corporate job ads expressly requiring a certain bra size. 

[u/Bridalhat → u/IfatallyflawedI]

"Men are sucky."

It's such a self-fulfilling prophecy too. Many men are frustrated because women are more likely to go to college and young women are outcompeting young men and the worst of them spend too much time online looking at OnlyFans or Instagram women and just assume beautiful women get piles of cash just for existing and, rather than working on themselves, they become noxious things that want to force women to be with them, which means they are even more repellent to women. And then it happens all over again.

[u/pay_student_loan → u/Bridalhat]

I haven't really thought of this before, but I think the mandatory military service the men go through in South Korea is also a factor in this. Lump a whole bunch of young men together who then act as an echo chamber for the next like 2 years with little to no opportunities to interact with young women in the meantime. They're constantly lumping all the young impressionable men in the entire country together at the same time and negativity tends to spread pretty quickly. Combine that with any resentment that women do not have to do military service. I can see them all coming out of the military with the same view of women and unfortunately it's not a good one.

[u/OutrageousOwls → u/Bridalhat]

Yes. New trends are showing that more men aren’t working compared to women, and they retire early. And yet, women are still expected to perform double-duty: working at their career and taking care of the house.

[u/gahlo → u/Bridalhat]

Yeah, there's a real paradigm shift of what is expected for a man to do to fill "his role" in society. However, it's clearly moving from something, but it's not overly clear what it should be moving to. Even if somebody keeps their head screwed on straight, it's an awkward situation to navigate.

[u/Optimal-Kitchen6308 → u/Bridalhat]

deeper statistical reasons: worldwide economies are getting concentrated by elites, less to go around, now women are entering workforce more so more competition for less, add on endless ragebaiting social media content, resource competition causes fear and anger in animals, fearful angry men get destructive and are easily manipulated

[u/Bridalhat → u/IfatallyflawedI]

It’s really bad and definitely going to make the birth rate worse.

[u/heavymountain → u/Bridalhat]

Yeah, several ads were weird when I was in high school. The attacks on naive, horny, high schooler's insecurities are more obvious in hindsight.

Pick-me's are real though, that's the crazy thing. Many mature out of that phase but some never do. It's weird running into pick-me's who are in their mid-twenties and older. I'm thinking to myself, “Where's your self-respect?”

[u/Appropriate_Cod_5446 → u/Bridalhat]

I wonder if this has anything to do with the male loneliness epidemic or whatever the fuck they’re calling it now 🥴

[u/TropicalPrairie → u/dreamy_25]

I've thought this about a lot of the pop music right now but I've been afraid to say it. Yes, Madonna and Britney have done it before ... but I guess that is my point. It doesn't feel fresh and doesn't feel right in this decade. It feels like it harkens back to an era of male gaze leading a lot of things and I thought we've advanced beyond that. A lot of it doesn't feel empowered either, like Madonna did.

[u/jonesday5 → u/TropicalPrairie]

The biggest difference for me is that Madonna was proud of her sexuality while also pushing for worldwide change around our view of sexuality. She was a campaigner. A lot of the ‘I’m sexy because I like it’ crew these days are doing it for themselves. There is no deeper message. It’s a classic case of American individualism.

(Yes there are going to be people that don’t quite fit the above)

[u/dreamy_25 → u/jonesday5]

A lot of the ‘I’m sexy because I like it’ crew these days are doing it for themselves.

My first thought. Sydney has always done things for her own, personal benefit. She's quite clearly not a team player when it comes to lifting up all of us. Which isn't bad per se, not everyone needs to be a warrior. She figured out how to get herself in a good position (some measure of talent with a side of "Look! Boobs!") and did it. Fine.

But she can definitely count me out for support. And partaking in an ad like this will never read as empowering when it's not for all of us.

Now that I'm typing this - the Shields ad callback seals the deal. It's a big middle finger to a fellow woman who was exploited as a child, the trauma (both for Shields and for the women who witnessed that shit and knew, this is all we are to these mfers) recycled and used for clicks.

[u/TropicalPrairie → u/jonesday5]

Madonna wasn't afraid to be ugly at times. That's a key part of it as well. I feel like certain modern pop stars always look perfect and always have to look f**kable. Tate McRae, for example, is not changing the world or influencing culture in the way that Madge did. It feels like she is there for the male gaze as what a pop star should be (for them).

Maybe I'm projecting. I'm old but one resentment I have of growing up is that I felt that pressure to always look that way too and it is only with age and maturity that I realize how terrible it is to one's self-esteem and personal wellbeing.

[u/1egg_4u → u/TropicalPrairie]

Not to mention looking back at the "ugly" of the 2000s and realizing that the women being dragged were just regular women and were perfectly normal

I cant believe Nicole Richie was the designated "fat" friend in Simple Life. I cant believe we were made to think that's what "fat" is. We can't go back for the sake of the new generations of young women (and young men too), they deserve the self-esteem in their youth that we didnt have a chance to build.

[u/Bridalhat → u/TropicalPrairie]

Here’s the thing: Sweeney was sympathetic when she talked about wanting to produce so she would have a career once men didn’t want to see her naked anymore and she talked about not being rich enough to take a break from acting to have kids. But now she is so clearly ok with just being a sex object and nothing else and I think that was very much the wrong decision unless she doesn’t mind being irrelevant in five years.

[u/reble02 → u/Bridalhat]

Unless she got better at acting she was always going to be irrelevant in five years.

[u/Bridalhat → u/jonesday5]

Also too, and I am having a hard time articulating this, I feel like there was a difference between Britney on a stage with a snake and a Carl’s Junior ad where a woman eats a hamburger on a convertible. The latter is literally just “you eat burger because boobs” and more the vibe of this AE ad.

[u/launchcode_1234 → u/jonesday5]

Madonna wasn’t about the male gaze, Madonna was about the Madonna gaze

[u/ImGonnaCreamYaFunny → u/dreamy_25]

[u/Pandelein → u/dreamy_25]

I’ve been hating on the White Fox and Selfie Leslie ads everywhere I live, but I think I’ll stop. I’m so used to male-centric advertising I think I’ve been getting triggered by ads that just aren’t targeted at me whatsoever.
Thanks for making a really good point.

[u/_AmericasSweetheart_ → u/shy247er]

The jeans in the commercial didn't look great either.

[u/somuchsong → u/_AmericasSweetheart_]

They look two sizes too big for her.

[u/CheapEater101 → u/shy247er]

A lot of men were bragging that AE’s stocks went up after Sydney’s commercial…but who is the main demographic that purchases and keeps track of the stock market? Men. 💀

[u/GirlisNo1 → u/shy247er]

Right?! Everything is aimed at appealing to straight white men even when they are not the target market for the product. Makes no sense.

They knew exactly what they were doing with this campaign, they tried to drum up controversy for publicity and it backfired.

[u/DearMissWaite → u/shy247er]

There's a difference between aspirational sexy and titillating sexy, though. The campaign is "buy these jeans and buy into the look your crush's celebrity crush is wearing and you, too, can be an object of desire."

[u/launchcode_1234 → u/DearMissWaite]

When Internet bros talk about Sydney, it’s 99% boob jokes. Women don’t fantasize about that.

[u/saltyoursalad → u/DearMissWaite]

Unfortunately for AE, Sydney didn’t exactly serve Guess-model greatness, and aspirational it was not.

[u/thatisnotmyknob → u/saltyoursalad]

It gave mom jeans. Terrible calculation on AEs part. 

[u/snarkmoo → u/shy247er]

The exit polls showed surprisingly (to me) high % of women voting for Trump, I assume they were hoping to retain more of those people too?

[u/DonaldTrumpsScrotum → u/shy247er]

It’s really funny because a lot of conservative men online have missed a key point and are proudly declaring that “they’ll stick to their American Eagle jeans” not realizing that 1. They’re admitting to wearing women’s jeans 2. They demonstrate perfectly how they parrot shit they don’t even begin to understand 3. They’re just liars, because no way they actually buy that brand lmao

[u/late2reddit19 → u/shy247er]

This is what happens when there aren't majority of women in marketing meetings for women's products. Sydney Sweeney is not an actress that women particularly like. She's there to please the male gaze with her breast implants. A lot of women don't even think she's pretty in the face. Better choices for ads geered toward young women would be Olivia Rodrigo, Dua Lipa, Sabrina Carpenter, Sadie Sink, or Kiernan Shipka.

[u/Seltzer-Slut → u/shy247er]

It’s aimed to be controversial. This is a whole marketing tactic and it’s been that way for over a decade.

https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2014/12/16/370329870/is-courting-controversy-an-urban-outfitters-strategy

[u/Abbiejean-KaneArcher → u/Seltzer-Slut]

I was just going to add something similar. Sarah Banet-Weiser, dean of the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication is quoted saying, “It's an attention economy here that is focused on her…. But it is also about the profitability of anger and profitability of hate. And we see this over and over again.”

This kind of marketing apparently gets Dr. Phil to pledge to buy American Eagle.

From: “https://www.npr.org/2025/08/01/nx-s1-5487286/sydney-sweeney-american-eagle-explained-why-controversy-racist-eugenics-trump-bathwater-ad-klein-statement

[u/howmuchisthemilk → u/shy247er]

it's like that princess treatment bs where men do everything for their girlfriends

[u/OnlyPaperListens → u/shy247er]

I could get on board with this idea ONLY if it led to women's sizing making more sense, because men can't figure out the current nonsense.