American Eagle launched a classy yet controversial ad campaign featuring Hollywood heartthrob Sydney Sweeney. The ad’s marketing brilliance lies at the intersection of puns and political volatility. The controversy stems from the underdiscussed phenomenon of progressive prejudice.
Progressive Prejudice & Marketing Strategy
The fact that progressives presumed American Eagle’s play on the words “jeans”/“genes” was racist exposes the biases Americans see daily.
The ad, titled “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans,” shows the actress explaining that genes are inherited from parents before quipping, “My jeans are blue.”
Predictably, this angered the political left and sparked widespread mockery of the “woke” from the right. Ironically, the same crowd that supports actual eugenics through reproductive healthcare cried foul at American Eagle’s provocative pun.
The Guardian labeled the ad “white supremacist,” while CNN questioned whether American Eagle intended it as a “white supremacist dog whistle.” Those on the right, from the White House to the Secretary of Defense, have mocked the outrage. J.D. Vance mocked progressive moralizers, quipping that Democrats should keep calling “everybody who thinks Sydney Sweeney is attractive a Nazi.”
American Eagle’s ad was a success, resulting in soaring stock prices. At the core of this success are two uncomfortable truths for the modern left. First, progressive leftists are considered the establishment. Second, irrational prejudice creates opportunities for corporate profit.
Progressive prejudice operates like every other form of bias or intolerance. It ranges from the understandable to the absurd. In the recent past, progressive leftists were emboldened to engage in extreme forms of prejudice under the guise of compassion. American Eagle’s controversial ad campaign intentionally flips the cultural script.
Progressive Authoritarianism
The subversive nature of American Eagle’s ad worked because anti-authoritarianism is American, and the woke scold is the new Bible thumper. The controversy over Sydney Sweeney’s American Eagle ad comes during heightened ideological battles raging across the nation. In spite of these tensions, most Americans are not highly politically engaged. The woke mob is, in fact, a small minority of overall US consumers.
Leftists may struggle to understand how authoritarianism can grow in their own garden, but this is because of their own psychological deficiency.
Luke Conway, psychology professor and author of Liberal Bullies, studied left-wing authoritarianism and found that, rather than showing no signs of authoritarianism, leftists simply have different prejudices and concerns.
Race, in particular, is a domain in which leftists oversimplify and seek to control with absolution. When paired with the finding that leftists believe the nation would be better if some groups “would just shut up and accept their group’s proper place in society,” it becomes easier to understand how Americans are drawn to messaging that pushes against progressive orthodoxy.
After years of enduring coordinated messaging designed to stigmatize any preference for white, Anglo-Saxon, American beauty, American Eagle’s decision to highlight Sydney Sweeney’s specific style of beauty was a controversial yet quintessentially American choice.
Prejudice Drives Profit
Until leftists come to terms with their own prejudice and insatiable appetite for intolerance, they will continue to position themselves poorly in a culture weary of their ideological dominance.
Conway’s research showed the major difference between right- and left-wing authoritarianism is the cognitive dissonance within the progressive mind. American liberals, convinced they are, by definition, anti-authoritarian, cannot conceive of their own prejudice.
This lack of self-reflection leads to absurd results, like taking a provocative pun and presuming it is white supremacy or Nazi propaganda.
For years, brands have cowered, unwilling to poke the progressive bear for fear of offense. But the America of the 2010s is gone. Increasingly, the public is tired of being scolded for obscure sins unknown to the average Joe.
Additionally, in the age of the internet, ideological warfare, offense, and outrage are normal. Brands, from individuals to corporate entities, know that outrage sells. And, whether progressives like it or not, leftist ideals are considered the establishment, making their sacred cows easy targets for subversive art, advertising, and media.
American Eagle’s ad campaign is not racist, doesn’t glorify eugenics, and isn’t targeted to the far right. Instead, it represents a cultural and social shift, exposing how the nation is tired of being held captive by progressive ideals.
Those free from the cage of progressive prejudice can see the ad for what it is: a provocative unshackling of the American mind.
Leslie Corbly, author of Progressive Prejudice: Exposing the Devouring Mother, is a columnist, poet, and attorney.