American Eagle Outfitters and Sweeney received a lot of criticism over the summer for an advertising campaign that critics said had racist undertones. Pictures of Sweeney, wearing the company's jeans, were accompanied by the text: "Sydney Sweeney has great jeans", which in English sounds very similar to "Sydney Sweeney has good genes".
The company's CFO Michael Matthias now admits that the "Sweeney effect" has contributed greatly to the sales boost when the company has now reported sales figures for the latest quarter.
The traffic we see digitally from the campaigns has been significant, he says.
The company is also raising its sales forecast for the fourth quarter, including the Christmas shopping season, to 8–9 percent higher than last year. The market's assessment ahead of the report was an average of 2 percent. On Wall Street, the stock is also up 15 percent in after-hours trading.
