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Industry Leaders Criticize Sydney Sweeney‘s American Eagle Campaign as Tone-Deaf Homage to Controversial 1980s Ads
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – A recent advertising campaign featuring actress Sydney Sweeney for American Eagle has ignited a firestorm of criticism from industry veterans who argue it dangerously echoes the problematic playbook of 1980s advertising, particularly a notorious Brooke Shields Calvin Klein spot. Experts contend the campaign, rather than showcasing empowerment, revisits an outdated and potentially harmful gaze, especially in the current cultural climate.
lisa Braun Dubbels, CEO of Catalyst Publicity and Promotion Group, drew a direct parallel between the current campaign and the iconic, yet controversial, Brooke Shields advertisement from the 1980s.Dubbels, who came of age during that era, stated, “I remember when fashion dictated not just what to wear, but who you were allowed to be. So when I see this campaign, I’m not seeing empowerment. I’m seeing a repackaged version of the same old gaze-now with slightly different casting.”
This sentiment is echoed by Tricia Melton,a former marketing chief at Warner Bros. and Disney Entertainment. Melton believes the campaign carries the same scandalous weight today as the original Calvin Klein advertisement featuring Brooke Shields. She characterized the campaign as a “very specific kind of choice-especially right now, in a country grappling with real, painful cultural fault lines around race, identity, and privilege.” Melton elaborated, “At best, it’s tone-deaf. At worst, it feels like it stumbled out of a focus group hosted in 1983 and accidentally landed in a time machine headed straight into the most fractured era in modern American life.”
Melton explicitly identified the campaign as an “homage to the infamous Calvin Klein Brooke Shields ads from the ’80s,” referencing the ads where a then-15-year-old shields famously asked, “What comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing.” She pointed out that while that campaign was considered scandalous at the time, its revival now, amidst public discussions surrounding the Epstein list and a renewed focus on the exploitation of young women, is ill-advised. “It’s not exactly the nostalgic vibe one might want to evoke,” Melton commented.
moreover, Melton, who is also the co-founder and principal of Pith & Pixie Dust, expressed skepticism about Gen Z‘s reception of the campaign. She suggested that for a generation adept at recognizing irony, averse to insincerity, and skilled in digital discernment, the campaign appears to be a miscalculated attempt by “millennial marketers” to capture an edgy aesthetic. Melton critiqued the campaign’s tagline, noting, “The pun (genes/jeans) isn’t clever so much as it is clunky. And when paired with a blonde, blue-eyed actress talking about ‘great genes,’ it begins to trip wires no one asked to be tripped.”
The critique highlights a broader conversation within the advertising industry about the responsibility of brands to be culturally aware and avoid replicating past controversies, particularly when targeting younger demographics. The enduring impact of the Brooke shields Calvin Klein ads serves as a cautionary tale, underscoring the importance of thoughtful messaging in an increasingly sensitive and discerning media landscape.
