The American Eagle<\/em> clothing company is in a tough spot.\u00a0\u00a0Selling blue jeans in the United States is an incredibly competitive market.\u00a0\u00a0Think about it;\u00a0\u00a0every kind of \u201cjeans\u201d has its niche.\u00a0\u00a0Levi\u2019s<\/em> is still \u201cthe king\u201d, but if you\u2019re \u201ca little bit country\u201d, you\u2019re probably wearing Wranglers<\/em> or Carhartt<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0But LL Bean<\/em> and, my favorite, Land\u2019s End<\/em> have the \u201cboomer market\u201d (they make a short\/fat pair for me \u2013 Grandpa jeans I guess!!). And the incredibly competitive youth market requires pre-shredded jeans that fit skin-tight, but still are comfortable.\u00a0And while American Eagle<\/em> had a great run as a hands-on retailer at the shopping mall, the world (including me) buys online now.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s been a while for almost anyone to say: \u201cI went to the Mall today\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now Amazon<\/em> will send you jeans to try on, some \u201cname brands\u201d, some made by companies whose names are an unpronounceable series of consonants.\u00a0\u00a0Amazon<\/em> can dress you inside and out, developing your \u201cstyle and theme\u201d, and you can send the rest back.\u00a0\u00a0So, wearing American Eagle<\/em> is no longer a stand-alone fashion statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The corporate answer:\u00a0\u00a0let\u2019s get a young movie star to model our jeans.\u00a0\u00a0Sydney Sweeney was the \u201canswer\u201d to American Eagle\u2019s<\/em> prayers.\u00a0\u00a0She\u2019s a \u201cstar\u201d in the \u201ctarget\u201d age group:\u00a0\u00a0twenty-seven with twenty-four films already to her credit.\u00a0\u00a0But she\u2019s best known for her roles in streaming television, including \u201cThe Handmaid\u2019s Tale\u201d and \u201cWhite Lotus\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0To point out the obvious, it really doesn\u2019t matter that I haven\u2019t heard of her or any of her movies or TV shows. American Eagle<\/em> isn\u2019t trying to sell jeans to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And the marketing department came up with a \u201ccatch-phrase\u201d that would summarize the whole campaign:\u00a0\u201cSydney Sweeney has great jeans!!\u201d\u00a0\u00a0And in one of the actual ads, they had Sydney use the following line:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGenes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color.\u201d As the camera slowly pans upward and she turns her eyes toward the viewer, and Sweeney concludes, \u201cMy jeans are blue.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s cute.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s genetics mixed with fashionable clothing.\u00a0\u00a0And it means nothing about \u201cracism\u201d or \u201ceugenics\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0(For those who only vaguely remember reading\u00a0Brave New World<\/u>\u00a0in high school, eugenics is the science of trying to breed humans to enhance or remove certain traits).\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>But in our hyper-political world, some jumped on both the dialog, and the sexuality of the blonde twenty-seven year old.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s \u201cpromoting\u201d Caucasian, blue eyed-blonde GENES!!\u00a0\u00a0It was, believe it, about a beautiful young woman, using her beauty to sell you jeans!!\u00a0\u00a0And, and, it was kind of like an ad made by Brooke Shields (when she was fifteen) back in the day \u2013 sexualizing a child!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Look, I\u2019m as \u201cwoke\u201d as the next Liberal, but this seems like, what my Mother would have called \u201cA tempest in a teapot\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The American Eagle<\/em> writers were \u201ccute\u201d, using genes and jeans interchangeably.\u00a0\u00a0They found a grown, adult, woman to model them (not a fifteen year-old child).\u00a0\u00a0And, damn straight they sexualized the product.\u00a0\u00a0I buy jeans for fit and comfort. My neighbors buy jeans that they wear to the rodeo (though the TV series\u00a0Yellowstone<\/em>\u00a0featured mostly Levi\u2019s<\/em>). But the \u201ctarget\u201d age-group, adolescent to young adult, buy jeans to \u201clook good\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Who are they trying to \u201clook good\u201d for (That\u2019s a trap)?\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0Whoever they want to attract of whatever gender they are attracted to (that\u2019s the way out<\/em>)!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Look, we live in a Nation where unidentifiable men round up folks of color in the streets.\u00a0\u00a0In the US today, there are \u201cdetention sites\u201d where folks are held without charges, in horrible conditions, and without access to courts or legal assistance.\u00a0\u00a0After the passage of Trump\u2019s \u201cbig, beautiful bill\u201d, millions of Americans will lose their health care.\u00a0\u00a0And we are seeing the rise of Christian Nationalism mixed with Government support altering the public education systems.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Freedom of speech is being restricted, folks are supposed to \u201cstay small\u201d so that they aren\u2019t \u201cin trouble\u201d, and Americans are \u201cbeing careful\u201d about who they talk to about the future of our Nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAd Campaign<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Jeans or Genes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Merica<\/h2>\n\n\n\n