Digital Horizons

Good Genes, Great Dancing: The Battle of Viral Denim Campaigns

• James Walker & Brian Hastings

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The fashion advertising landscape has been dramatically shaken by two competing denim campaigns that have captivated audiences worldwide. Our latest episode dives deep into this unexpected cultural moment, examining how American Eagle and Gap have approached selling essentially the same product with wildly different strategies—both achieving remarkable success.

American Eagle's controversial campaign featuring Sydney Sweeney centered around a clever "good genes" wordplay that sparked heated debates across social platforms. Despite (or perhaps because of) the controversy surrounding a blue-eyed blonde spokesperson making this particular joke, American Eagle saw sales surge by an impressive 10% immediately following the campaign launch. This raises fascinating questions about whether controversy might sometimes be a strategic advantage rather than a liability.

Meanwhile, Gap countered with their signature high-production music video approach featuring Cat's Eye performing to Kelis's "Milkshake" with mesmerizing choreography. The ad has proven so captivating that shoppers are literally stopping in their tracks at mall entrances to watch—a remarkable achievement in our attention-scarce world. What makes this particularly noteworthy is how it challenges current marketing wisdom. While platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels have pushed brands toward raw, authentic-feeling content, Gap's polished production demonstrates that exceptionally executed creative can still outperform the homemade aesthetic when it delivers something influencers simply cannot replicate from their bedrooms.

Have you noticed these campaigns while scrolling? We'd love to hear which approach resonated more with you and why. Subscribe to Digital Horizons for more analysis of the trends reshaping marketing in real-time, and share your thoughts with us on social media!

The Digital Horizons Podcast is hosted by:

James Walker - Managing Director WHD
Brian Hastings - Managing Director Nous

Speaker 2:

All right, welcome back to Digital Horizons and a brand new. Seen them and I said of course I have, but I didn't really have any opinion on them. So I guess I was keen to hear your thoughts on what's going on with these ads and, I guess, any takeaways from them.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I'm not just doing it for my own interests as a branding specialist and, you know, with a digital marketing podcast, it is a cultural phenomenon the two denim ads that we're seeing in market at the moment and I thought we must at least discuss it and see what we're seeing in market at the moment.

Speaker 2:

So we're talking about Sydney Sweeney and another brand, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Sydney Sweeney and American Eagle. That's right With the celebrity endorsement ad that came out probably about a month and a half ago, and then last week, gap's latest denim ad, which uses their sort of tried and tested, viral, almost music video style ad with Cat's Eye, the girl group.

Speaker 2:

So on the Sydney Sweeney side of things, I've seen obviously across Twitter and LinkedIn and everywhere people got their opinions on it. But from what I do understand is that attention obviously is way up on the brand, like the people are talking about. The brand Are sales up.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it absolutely has. So people can have the controversy or their concern or they want. I personally believe it is just a jeans ad that used a pretty hot, famous celebrity to endorse it, but sales surged immediately after the campaign by 10%. That's huge with the size of the sales revenue for American Eagle. However, the controversy being people thinking Sydney Sweeney's talking about her genes being her genetics, which is the joke. I've got good genes, meaning the American Eagle genes and her genetics. People worried about how that looks or sounds coming from a blue-eyed, blonde-haired girl. Yeah, controversy aside, people say what they want about it. It worked In the space following that ad with the controversy that ensued the Gap I don't know whether they planned this or whether it was just a happy coincidence in launching their denim ad only three or four weeks later.

Speaker 1:

And it's not new for Gap. They've always been doing these viral music video style pieces of content that get 50 to 60 million views on the YouTube versions of the ad alone and they've been hugely successful. But just at the time following the Sydney Sweeney denim ad controversy, it was like Gap swooped in with this hugely addictive ad to watch the choreography. It's fantastic from Cat's Eye, the girls doing the dancing and the wider dance group. That's in that, but also the Khalees song Milkshake. It just grabs attention and it's impossible not to watch. It's just an awesome piece of choreography entertainment paired with the music. And in the background they're wearing some pretty cool clothes, pretty cool denim. So the outcome or the theme has been wow, gap's done it right, they've figured it out, they've served a denim ad. Well to anyone who was having issues with the Sydney Sweeney ad, I think for both brands they are seeing a surge in their sales and revenue. There isn't any available data yet because the Gap one is so recent, but it's just so incredible that a competitor's campaign, even a successful one, can be leveraged or you can have some success of it by going in a slightly different direction, promoting the same product, your denim line, just in a different way and just sticking to their knitting.

Speaker 1:

At Gap they were doing their video production, music video style, with a great hook, a great song, and it is just landing so well. There's videos of old people in shopping centres stopping and looking at the screens out the front of Gap stores. There's a screen on either side of the entryway where the music's playing and they're just watching this music video. Groups of people strangers are stopping to watch this music video because the dance is hypnotic. It's a fantastic piece of branding. There's no controversy flicking off the back of this one, but I don't think that controversy has hurt american eagle enough for it to be considered a challenge or a failure. Sydney sweeney chime in and say there's nothing more to this ad than just an ad. Yeah, um, but yeah, I think it's a great campaign from specifically the gap. I think the american eagle one was just to me a standard campaign.

Speaker 2:

Yeah like.

Speaker 1:

It's just unusual for us to see people pick a large-chested, blonde, blue-eyed girl as their only ambassador in this day and age. So I think it was a bit of a out of left field for some people to see that, but she does have an audience. I think it was still a good plan. We'll check in and update how the sales figures for Gat performed after the Cat's Eye video. But I think the other point I really wanted to make is in the world of meta reels and TikTok videos, where lower quality ads are now the expectation to feel real, natural and organic. This super high production creative if done well, if taken to a place that can't be replicated by influencers in their bedrooms can massively outperform the homemade stuff. It comes at a cost, but there still is a place for really really well executed creative in the brand space and that's something I'm really excited to see.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, Well, thank you again for watching. We'll be back again next week.