The Battle Of Jeans Ads: Gap And Katseye Show American Eagle And Sydney Sweeney How It’s Done

ICYMI: Jeans are the current topic of town and not because skinny jeans are back. Type in “jeans ads” on your search bar and you’ll most likely get an American Eagle ad featuring Euphoria actress, Sydney Sweeney as top search. Amongst those searches, you will also find the latest denim campaign by Gap which featured the hit global girl group, Katseye. The reaction? Unlike American Eagle’s, it lacked a certain President’s commentary, but unlike it too, it was adored by people online.

The controversy

Gap’s “Better in Denim” campaign sees the six-member girl group Katseye dressed in a few low-rise styles paired with white tops, denim bra, and cropped jackets. In the video that was directed by Bethany Vargas and shot by Bjorn Iooss, the girls danced to the 2000s hit song Milkshake by Kelis, choreographed by Robbie Blue. The message is clear, they are bringing back Y2k and further reinforcing the low rise trend that is for everybody.

While Gap successfully delivers its message of championing denim to celebrate youth culture, self expression, and diversity, American Eagle only managed to convey that Sydney Sweeney looks good in her jeans. Of course, there is nothing wrong with saying someone looks good in a Canadian tuxedo made by an American brand, right? The controversy, however, was triggered by its tagline which says “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans” – a play on the similar pronunciation of “jeans” and “genes”, which led viewers to believe that the message is: blonde hair, blue eyes, and white skin genes are better. And if you remember that Kendall Jenner ad back from 2017, you would already know the responses for this ad in the big year of 2025.

The verdict

Bad PR is good PR… until it’s not, which is seemingly the case for American Eagle newest jeans ad. Whether or not the brand was being intentional in its messaging, it completely missed the mark with its audience, especially the younger ones. And if they were trying to rage bait, well, consider them successful in that sense.

Gap tapping Katseye, a diverse girl group (who, by the way, can move and dance in their jeans), makes it pretty obvious that they are on the different ends of the spectrum (you can say on both the message and I guess, the flexibility of their jeans). There is a famous saying, strike when the iron is hot, and in Gap’s case, the campaign couldn’t have dropped in a more timely manner, which so far, only makes it even more favourable in the public eye.