American Eagle shares have soared following the release of Sydney Sweeney's jeans advert - despite a furious backlash on social media.
The brand posted the ad last week as part of its autumn advertising rollout, featuring the tagline: "Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans".
In one clip, Sweeney says: "Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair colour, personality, and even eye colour... my eyes are blue."
In another, she says to the camera: "My body's composition is determined by my genes."
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This sparked fury from users on social media, who accused the ads of being a "racial dog-whistle".
In a viral post, one social media user said "Getting a blue-eyed, blonde, white woman and focusing your campaign around her having perfect genetics feels weird."
Another enraged commentator said: "The Sydney Sweeney American Eagle ad campaign is just modern-day Nazi propaganda, like it's wild how blatant it is."
Others jumped to the White Lotus star's defence, with one user stating "It doesn't hurt ANYONE, that's the point, it's literally just an advertisement for jeans, not for Nazism."
Another wrote, "Woke advertising is dead. Sydney Sweeney killed it."
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However, investors appeared to have ignored the hysteria on social media.
In the first quarter of the year, American Eagle's total net revenue decreased to $1.1billion (£820million), a decline of five per cent compared to the same period last year.
But just one day after releasing the ads, American Eagle's stock jumped by 10 per cent, with the company taking home over $400million (£300million) in just 24 hours.
Throughout the summer, American Eagle stock has been trading between the $9-$10 mark, but now sits at over $11.50 with an increase over 11 per cent since last Wednesday.
American Eagle's market cap has now exceeded $2billion (£1.5billion).
GETTY
|American Eagle's market cap has now exceeded $2 billion
Craig Brommers, the jeans brand's chief marketing officer, highlighted that the ad showcasing the A-list actress was part of a bid to "place the big bets behind the biggest stars".
"To be able to partner with Sweeney on this is saying something, and it's saying something in what has been a trickier retail environment this year, that American Eagle is still placing big bets," he said.
"What we've also learned along the way is as talent costs have escalated, sometimes it's actually more important to place the big bets behind the biggest stars, and while those investments tend to be higher, the payback tends to be higher as well."