The jeans ad with Sidney Sweeney has turned out to be a smash for American Eagle. In the first full week after the campaign launched (27 July to 2 August), attendance was down 3.9% year-on-year, and from 3 to 9 August it was already down 9% compared to the same period last year.
The irony is that a few weeks before the premiere, the dynamics were reversed: 5.9% growth from 6 to 13 July and 4.9% from 13 to 20 July.
However, competitors also experienced bad days: minus 3.3% for Abercrombie & Fitch, minus 4.9% for H&M, minus 2.8% for Gap and minus 2.7% for Urban Outfitters. So the drop is unlikely to be due to controversial creative alone.