Some men just want to watch the world burn LOL… 

Talk about a plot twist. While you may or may not have been eating bioengineered meat that came from a 3-D printer inside a Campbell’s soup can the last few days… American Eagle just canned America’s current #1 overall pick (read: Sydney Sweeney) for… *checks notes*... Martha Stewart. Huh? Yeah, Martha… a.k.a., the final boss of “your friend’s mom who brings a casserole to everything” is the new face of jeans at AE. 

(Source: Giphy) 

In short, the campaign is called “Give Great Jeans.” Which is already funny because half the internet still hasn’t emotionally recovered from the Sydney Sweeney “great jeans/genes” controversy. American Eagle definitely remembers, though. And instead of apologizing or pivoting or taking a few drinks to cool off, they did the opposite: they doubled down on denim chaos and called Martha.

(Source: New York Post) 

Aaaaand, it worked. Shares popped 4% the moment her denim-on-denim glamour shots hit the timeline. The woman posed in a fully blue set with a denim turkey. A denim turkey. AE saw the culture war swirling and basically said, “Alright, let’s give the algorithm an aneurysm.” Retail analysts are doing their best to rationalize this by saying Martha’s “irreverence” resonates with Gen Z. Sure. Or maybe AE just realized that leaning into internet absurdity is cheaper than buying billboards. Either way, it’s hard to argue with results: Stewart has been endorsing everything from wine to CBD to “Wall Street’s favorite hobby,” (read: insider trading) and it always prints.

Case in point: It printed with Sydney Sweeney (the campaign sold out in a week and torched AE’s traffic records), and now AE is betting on the same phenomena here. They’re running the same play from a different angle. Sydney got the zoomers. Martha gets the moms. And AE gets a nice little Q4 bump right in time for the only season the company reliably makes money: teens panic-buying jeans with their parents’ card two days before Christmas. So yeah… that’s where we are.

Live look at AE right now… 

(Source: Giphy)

Sydney Sweeney kicked open the door, and Martha Stewart walked through it casually reminding eveyone she went to federal prison and came out with her brand stronger. Markets love a winner. Even if she’s 84. Love to see it. Until next time, friends…

At the time of publishing, Stocks.News does not hold positions in companies mentioned in the article.