Earlier than Sydney Sweeney and her genes/jeans got here alongside, American Eagle CMO Craig Brommers thought he’d already skilled essentially the most harrowing model second of his skilled profession. 

A 25-year veteran of the trade, he was head of selling at Speedo in the course of the years when Michael Phelps dominated swimming on the Olympics: Sydney in 2000, Athens in 2004 — then the record-breaking eight gold medals on the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The distinction? Speedo.

“That 2008 Beijing Olympics marketing campaign was extremely intense,” he recalled on Adspeak, the ADWEEK trade podcast hosted by editor in chief Ryan Joe. “We developed a full-body swimsuit known as the LZR Racer with NASA, and this swimsuit led to all kinds of information being damaged.”

The know-how was deeply controversial, dominating information headlines world wide. Finally, the fits had been banned. Brommers went on to work at Abercrombie & Fitch and Hole, touchdown at AE in 2020. Then got here the summer season of Sydney Sweeney. 

Brommers shared his expertise of being within the eye of the media hurricane and whether or not the marketing campaign performed out the best way he anticipated.

This transcript has been edited for readability and house.

Why denim?

“So goes denims, so goes American Eagle. As chances are you’ll bear in mind, ‘23 into ‘24, denim was having a second in a really massive method. And there have been so many style manufacturers up and down the panorama that had been collaborating. And we actually felt like we would have liked to guarantee that we recaptured individuals’s creativeness.” 

Why Sydney Sweeney? 

Brommers calls the back-to-school purchasing season the Tremendous Bowl of denim. “The transient was very clear: Let’s get the It Woman of 2025. Each key American retailer is bringing their A recreation for this specific interval, and we wished to degree up and convey the most effective recreation that American Eagle has ever introduced. She was good for this American Eagle marketing campaign as a result of she is this excellent mixture of aspiration and on a regular basis, one thing that basically suits our model.” 

The expectations: 

“We knew that this was a extra provocative marketing campaign than American Eagle had achieved in latest historical past. And that might additionally get individuals speaking. For the primary few days, it was actually a celebratory temper across the marketing campaign. Then there have been some absurd claims in regards to the marketing campaign. I truly felt like I used to be residing in alternate universes as a result of what I used to be seeing and listening to on social media, and to some [extent] the mainstream media, was very completely different than the enterprise and buyer efficiency metrics.”

The takeaway: