Actress Sydney Sweeney is one of the hottest young stars in the business, partly thanks to her role in Euphoria (which is streaming with a HBO Max subscription). But she's also been the subject of some controversy, with Sweeney's American Eagle ad getting a ton of backlash. While that brouhaha has made plenty of headlines, it's also reportedly made a ton of money for the store itself.
While fans wait for Euphoria Season 3, the actress has become synonymous with that viral American Eagle advertisement. Despite (or perhaps because of) the controversy, it turns out that the company has made a ton of money. Per a report by Fox News, the Sweeney commercial "added roughly $400 million in market value and amplified the brand's web traffic by 100%." Those are some huge numbers, and seemingly shows that there's no such thing as bad publicity.
According to this report, the controversy actually helped American Eagle to find a great profit. So the controversial commercial seemingly did what it needed to and got more people interested in the company as a whole. Branding expert Doug Eldridge spoke to Fox about this phenomenon, offering:
In this case, controversy led to coverage, which created sustained attention and interest, all of which produced increased investment. The uptick in the AE stock price speaks for itself. A 10% increase — which was almost entirely attributable to one, standalone, campaign – is incredible. They’ve always made the same jeans, they just didn’t have the same ‘go to market’ approach when it came to brand messaging.
The controversy surrounding this ad ended up being good for American Eagle in the end, and shows just how popular of a figure Sydney Sweeney has become over the last few years. Her star power only continues to rise, which is likely why so many people responded to what she had to say in the infamous jeans advertisement.
The wild success of this commercial stands in juxtaposition to the 28 year-old actress' latest release Christy, which was labeled a box office flop upon its release. But she's been working non-stop, resulting in some of the best Sydney Sweeney performances (so far). And with her commercial for American Eagle making so much money for the clothing company, I have to assume that the Madame Web star will be getting a ton of offers for more brand deals.
Looking forward, Sweeney has a ton of exciting projects coming down the line. Chief among them is the book to screen adaptation The Housemaid, which hits theaters on December 19th as part of the 2025 movie release list. But that's just the tip of the iceberg, as she's attached to a number of other movies, as well as the highly anticipated third season of Euphoria.
