American Eagle brand jeans ran a series of promotions featuring popular actress Sydney Sweeney. The promotion featured the 27 year old blonde, blue eyed Caucasian model in sexy imagery with comments that “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans.” The promotional campaign offended some consumers who perceived it as proclaiming that white genes were superior to genes of other ethnicities. Some consumers went so far as to associate the promotion – and thus American Eagle – with Nazi white supremacy racism. Although a majority of Americans did not view the ad as inappropriate, the reactions from American Eagle’s target market showed reasons for concern. Immediately after the promotions aired, the company’s stock price increased, but its foot traffic in its stores decreased