Back to school, marketing!

For all the kids and teens out there, it's been "Back to School!" for two weeks now. Of course, you have to look good for the start of school and urgently need new clothes, which is why fashion brands and retailers are making a special effort in August with young target groups in mind. This also applies to the "American Eagle" brand, which has been around in the USA for over forty years and now wants to rejuvenate itself by hiring actress Sydney Sweeney. What followed is well known: Left-wing activists accused the brand of racism, even of spreading eugenics concepts (no kidding). And from the right came cheers that "woke" advertising was finally over. Both are of course utter nonsense, but no matter: advertising has long been pilloried as supposed proof of political agendas, always by people who shouldn't be buying the advertised product anyway.

What is embarrassing, however, is that even self-appointed marketing experts are involved in such conspiracy theories and suspect that their own work is part of the big picture. Instead of simply making good advertising that increases sales in the intended target group. And this raises at least two questions about the new American Eagle campaign: Firstly, was the campaign noticed? But hello, you would think, everyone is talking about it! Well, we hope that young women between 15 and 25 are also talking about it, because they were the target group. But we're not so sure, because from our own experience we have to say: What old people find mega-important is often not relevant enough for GenZ and younger. And the second question: was the campaign understood - did it change attitudes towards the brand? Here, too, we are not yet sure. The only certainty is that men think the campaign is great. Unfortunately, they don't buy women's jeans that often.

You can guess where we're going with this: The clever marketing experts should read fewer comments on their favorite websites and on X and then feel very important. Instead, they should go back to the pedestrian zone or the mall and take a closer look at who is buying what, when and how, and why.

Or what do you think?

Here is the link: https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/american-eagle-has-no-regrets-over-signing-sydney-sweeney/