A Wren Says

Sometimes you find someone who says it much better than you ever could. I have been wading through what I could possibly write about the American Eagle ad fallout, the “great jeans” controversy. I have not had the time or mental space to dive into it. Luckily, I came across a video from Caleb Snell not only going in to the ad campaign, but comparing the jeans company’s approach to that of Ralph Lauren and their Oak Bluffs campaign.

To be fair, there has been some pushback to the Oak Bluffs campaign based on how it presents Black Americana. However, it has largely been received positively for how it shares a piece of American story often untold. For the intended audience, and many outside of it, the message resonated. Those who were part of that lifestyle, of families who vacationed there regularly or part of the Black wealthy and aspirational classes saw themselves.

On the flipside, American Eagle’s presentation was so centered on Sydney Sweeney and her body that people couldn’t see beyond that. The recycled messaging from the old Calvin Klein campaign became even more controversial. The storytelling, with deep zooms into Sweeney’s features translated into a message about her, not jeans, and distanced people further from the brand.

Both brands have very different target demographics overall. In no way should they have gone about their ad campaigns in the same way. However, it does go back to deeply considering who your audience is. Rather than trying to shock or go megaviral, how can you touch the different individual consumers, intertwining their stories into your own? How can you make it so that they seem themselves in your brand, instead of outside of it?