Sydney Sweeney’s ‘Cheeky’ American Eagle Campaign Spurs Meme Stock Frenzy

Sydney Sweeney’s new American Eagle campaign is sending more than just hearts racing. The 27-year old “Euphoria” actress threw markets into a frenzy on Wednesday night when her collaboration with the clothing brand catapulted the company’s stock during after-hours trading. Now, analysts are speculating that the trade may become the next meme stock sensation. The advertising campaign — titled “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans” — will include “innovative media strategies that push boundaries and capture attention” that convey the campaign’s “cheeky energy,” the company wrote in a Wednesday press release. Such installments include 3-D billboards that allow passersby to “interact directly” with the bombshell actress and a new Snapchat lens where Ms. Sweeney “speaks” with Snapchat users. “I think this is potentially one of the biggest gets in American Eagle history,” the company’s chief marketing officer, Craig Brommers, said this week, referring to Ms. Sweeney’s campaign. The strategy is reported to be the company’s most expensive campaign to date, and the investment appears to be paying off — the stock rose more than 17 percent Wednesday night and the rally continued into Thursday. The stock’s striking surge — which comes even as the company is down about 35 percent for the year and clocked a first-quarter earnings loss — suggests that the company may be receiving a boost from meme stock traders who share and coordinate trades on online platforms. By Thursday, American Eagle was making the rounds on several Reddit threads known to trigger meme stock frenzies. “Everyone knows sex sells,” one user wrote on Reddit’s WallStreetBets, a popular meme stock forum. The user, who claimed to own 2,000 shares of American Eagle, pitched a case for other investors to follow suit. Users have also been buzzing about the company on another popular thread, Stocktwits, where American Eagle has become the fifth most mentioned stock. The stock’s immense surge is being likened by analysts to the momentum behind previous meme stock sensations like GameStop and AMC. Widely regarded as the first meme stocks, GameStop and AMC saw immense price surges in 2021 after traders rallied behind the once-unloved companies on online platforms and encouraged others to invest. Although the meme stock craze is far from its heyday in 2021, the media-based investment trend appears to be making a revival. In recent days, a handful of low-priced stocks — including Opendoor, Kohl’s, and Krispy Kreme — have inexplicably surged. At the same time, chatter on online forums like WallStreetBets is reportedly on the rise. The developments were taken by a Bloomberg columnist, Matt Levine, as an indication that “Meme Stocks Are Back.” The Wall Street Journal has similarly embraced the trend’s revival, and is calling it the “meme-stock craze, season two.”

Sydney Sweeney’s ‘Cheeky’ American Eagle Campaign Spurs Meme Stock Frenzy

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