Sex sells, woke doesn'thttps://tomknighton.substack.com/p/sex-sells-woke-doesntSydney Sweeney’s ad for American Eagle wasn’t anything groundbreaking. A pretty actress wearing the clothing of a denim company, echoing their marketing tagline, all in an effort to get people to walk into their stores and buy their products.
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Everyone on the left absolutely lost their minds, but the company, American Eagle, didn’t budge. They somehow recognized that this wasn’t a Dylan Mulvaney moment for them, so they held firm.
And, it seems that paid off for them.
In the weeks that followed, the campaign proved to be a hit — bringing in almost a million new customers to American Eagle between July and September, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Demand spiked for featured items: the Sweeney Cinched Waist denim jacket sold out in a day, and the Sydney Jean sold out in a week.
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Woke advertising hasn’t really made anyone trip over themselves to buy a product. Companies like Nike, which once made it a point to highlight athletes and athletic-looking folks, eventually started featuring obese models who look like they’d never run for anything except to get to the front of the line for cake. Who sees that and thinks, “I need a good running shoe. Let’s go with the one that uses all the fat models” instead of literally anyone else?
Dylan Mulvaney’s “partnership” with Bud Light, though, will be the lesson in business marketing courses for decades to come, a literal textbook example of what not to do.
Jaquar will also be there, spinning from a brand associated with British luxury and using androgyny and whatever the hell else that pivot was supposed to be about, only to see sales drop 90 percent over the next year.
That’s catastrophic for any company, and why would they do it? Because they thought woke worked, and they figured Bud Light was the anomaly.
The pictured ad, at least, didn't feature Sweeney's cleavage or even her rear end to show the jeans' great fit
(wink! wink!). Her pretty face made the products look good.
Bud Light decided the show how socially Prog they are and got an
"Ewwwww!" from many customers and many in the general public. Grupo Modelo owes Bud Light thanks for a great year.
Jaguar decided the show how socially Prog they are and car buyers went
"WTF?!" and took their €€€€ elsewhere.
I moved from Nike (mid-range shoes on clearance at Nike stores and outlets) to Hoka due to plantar fasciitis. Nike's dalliances with Kaep mean I won't buy Nike shoes, at all. I haven't seen the Nike ads with people more less than fit than I am but can imagine that they are
-grade.
