Sex Sells. It Always Has. And the Ad Industry Has Finally Remembered That

Progressives hated it. The market didn’t.

With summer’s final month just a day away, it’s safe to conclude that its most defining stories haven’t come from fashion runways, but from their own marketing departments. The latest example? Sydney Sweeney’s American Eagle AW25 campaign, which has managed to provoke pugnacious liberals all over the globe. 

The American retailer’s campaign includes several adverts; all of which have generated criticism for differing reasons. It appears, the most divisive advert sees the actress reclining on a sofa, murmuring in a sleepy tone that has since become a meme: “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair colour, personality and even eye colour. My genes are blue,” before the narrator states: “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans.”

Progressive critics were quick to accuse the 15-second advert of promoting racist undertones, even going so far as to suggest it flirted with eugenicist ideas – based solely on a pun involving “genes” and “jeans”. It is striking to note that a particular group – intelligent enough to be fluent in social justice theory – are unintelligent enough to comprehend how wordplay is one of the oldest marketing tricks in the book. It seems more likely that they’re deliberately ignoring this fact in favour of bending the narrative to suit yet another one of their preloaded, cultural grievances.

One prominent influencer took to Instagram to deliver her perspective, recalling how as a “13 year-old girl” she would buy “all of her denim” from American Eagle, but that this new campaign has brought back her childhood trauma as “a brown girl”. She then went on to accuse the advert of upholding “white, Eurocentric beauty standards – which I thought by this point we would have moved on from”.

So, is the fashion industry supposed to sideline women – who possess European beauty traits – from representing any future fashion campaigns to prevent offending a particular audience? If so, that would not be progress. That is aesthetic discrimination driven by insecurity, dressed up as activism.

What makes these reactions even more absurd is that Beyoncé currently stands as the proud face of Levi’s Jeans – and their advertisements are far more overtly sexualised than Sydney’s campaign. A prime example is the “Launderette” advert, which sees the Texas Hold ’Em singer strut into a launderette – initially with the camera focused on her rear – before she strips down to her underwear as a young male scans her up and down. All of this unfolds to Beyoncé serenading the viewer with the lyrics: “Call me pretty thing, and I love to turn him on, boy I’ll let you be my Levi’s Jeans so you can hug that thing all day long…”.

Could you imagine the meltdown if American Eagle had gone full Beyoncé? Picture their possible take: “I’ll let you be my American Eagle jeans – snug and tight, the fit of my dreams.” The usual liberal commentators would’ve been cheering the marketing department out the door, boxes in hand before lunchtime.

Even without her now many formalised brand deals, Sydney Sweeney has proven how beauty can sell, again. In the opening scene from Anyone But You, she appears in a pair of Levi’s 501s and a white shirt. It wasn’t an advert but had the effect of one. The look went viral on TikTok, with countless influencers sharing videos of themselves trying on the classic denim cut for the first time – often styled exactly as Sydney wore them. The 501s were reportedly sold out for weeks – I know this because my youngest employee was among those racing to buy a pair, only to find they’d vanished from shelves. This is proof that featuring an attractive woman in a product doesn’t by default alienate a young female audience – it inspires them to pay a visit to the store.

Another detail that bitter liberals have perhaps consciously overlooked is that the jeans Sydney dons include a small butterfly motif embroidered on the back pocket. Far from a throwaway design choice, this butterfly symbolises domestic abuse awareness, a cause close to the actress’s heart. All profits from that design – “The Sydney Jean” – are being donated to Crisis Text Line, a non-profit that supports victims of abuse and mental health crises.

In a marketing landscape increasingly prone to controversy for its own sake – to grab headlines, stir Twitter outrage or posture as “brave” – this is a rare example of a brand that combines sensuality and substance without apology. It proves a campaign can be beautiful, effective and morally anchored – all at once. That’s not regressive. That’s balance. And it’s something many brands, caught up in the joyless theatre of modern virtue-signalling, could stand to relearn.

But the most telling thing of all is that American Eagle’s stock price has risen significantly since the campaign launched – just as Levi’s did during Beyoncé’s headline-grabbing tenure. The lesson is hardly new, but it’s worth repeating: sex sells. And it always has. The fashion industry didn’t forget that – it just temporarily pretended otherwise.

Lee Taylor is Managing Director of marketing agency Uncommon Sense.