How American Eagle Logged into the Outrage Economy

Apparently, Sydney Sweeney has great jeans, and the digital audience is not happy about how she flaunts them in American Eagle’s new jeans campaign and the then dissection of its catchphrase. But what is the bigger picture here?

“Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair colour, personality and even eye colour. My jeans are blue”, says Sweeney in the ad, and the internet erupted in response. The pun with Jeans/genes in the ad made people cry “eugenics”; others call it tone-deaf, but President Donald Trump called it the HOTTEST ad out there,  giving it a political analysis. But what did Sweeney do? She kept smiling in her butterfly jeans and sexy denim jacket, oblivious to the dumpster fire. While American Eagle clarified that their campaign was about denim and not genes, netizens lost it when they learned that Sweeney is a registered Republican, too, and is fighting on social media, referring to her beauty and racial privileges. Amidst all the outrage, American Eagle’s stocks skyrocketed last week, making me doubt whether all this fury is worth it.

We have been to this rodeo. When something mildly provocative happens in the entertainment world, we argue about it and share opinions on TikTok. Then we move on to the next controversy as if our outrage comes with an expiration date. Remember when we all diverted quickly from discussing the Russia-Ukraine war when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars? Just like that, the Internet feeds us with a daily dose of drama to debate on, turning us into unpaid labourers.

Over the last few weeks, American Eagle gained free publicity and promotion through the hot debates and discussions. Every meme, story, reel and post kept the topic alive, giving free exposure to the company, which used the outrage as a marketing strategy. The strategy, disguised as a cultural war ignited by dropping an ad with a beautiful, blonde and blue-eyed all-American actress, makes both sides think they are winning. But American Eagle sold a narrative by thriving on the short attention spans of digital audiences, turning our furious interactions meant to uphold our beliefs into unpaid digital labour.

In this outrage economy, where American Eagle’s ad acted as a bait to monetise, industrialise our engagement, and take up an unpaid space on every possible platform, smart are those who ride the wave instead of fighting.