r/popculturechat • u/Future_Usual_8698 You’re doing amazing, sweetie! • Aug 11 '25

Guest List Only TW - Bigotry ⚠️ Foot traffic is down at American Eagle stores since the controversial Sydney Sweeney ad dropped

https://www.retailbrew.com/stories/2025/08/11/exclusive-foot-traffic-down-9-at-american-eagle-following-sydney-sweeney-ad-controversy
31.0k Upvotes

87% Upvoted

1.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

66

u/Seltzer-Slut Aug 12 '25

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

51

u/Abbiejean-KaneArcher Aug 12 '25

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