"Sometimes a brand puts out a campaign and the internet goes wild, but it's not always in the way that the brand had hoped," said our analyst Suzy Davidkhanian on a recent episode of “Behind the Numbers.”

For example, a recent American Eagle jeans campaign featuring Sydney Sweeney sparked controversy, with headlines like "Sydney Sweeney under fire after controversial American Eagle ad campaign" to "American Eagle stock rises after Trump praises Sydney Sweeney ad amid backlash."

But this isn't just a recent phenomenon. From Peloton's controversial 2019 "gift from a husband" ad to Apple's 2024 iPad ‘Crush’ campaign, brands regularly face backlash over marketing that misses the mark with certain audiences.

What does it mean to "miss the mark"?

There’s a variety of reasons a campaign may not resonate with consumers.

"It can mean a lot of things," our analyst Sky Canaves said. "It can fall flat and not generate the attention or buzz or sales that it was ultimately aiming for. That's one end of the spectrum. And on the other, you have campaigns like American Eagle's, which generate a huge amount of controversy."

Even for the most controversial campaigns, it doesn’t mean the campaign wasn’t successful.

“I think about it in two ways,” said our analyst Arielle Feger. “How are consumers responding in terms of social media and all of that? But then also, how are consumers responding in terms of what they’re actually purchasing and buying?”

The challenge for brands is that social media backlash doesn't always translate to negative sales impact. In fact, controversy sometimes drives sales up in the short term—but potentially at a long-term cost to brand equity.

The two-way conversation expectation

Modern marketing requires more than just broadcasting messages—it demands engagement.

"Particularly with younger consumers, they want to engage in a two-way dialogue or conversation with brands," Canaves said. "A big lesson from this American Eagle controversy is that brands don't control the narrative of their campaigns as much as they might try to."

American Eagle's response to the backlash highlighted this disconnect. Rather than engaging meaningfully with critics, the brand issued bland statements and appeared to pull parts of the campaign without directly addressing concerns.

"Following their response to consumers' response to the ad, it seems like they're not necessarily very interested in creating a conversation with consumers," said Feger. "I think younger consumers especially really want to be heard by brands."

What brands can do when campaigns backfire

Here are some key recommendations for brands facing backlash.

1. Listen first. "Really dig into some social listening, just really take stock of what people are saying and think about why before you craft any kind of response," Feger said.

2. Respond authentically. In today's polarized environment, brands often retreat rather than engage meaningfully. "American Eagle didn't come out and say, 'No, this isn't about eugenics and we're against that,'" said Canaves. "Instead, they kind of retreated into their shell and took the traditional route of saying as little as possible for as long as possible."

3. Focus on future actions. "Something that I think is important in any kind of response or apology is to focus on a future-looking thing, thinking about next steps, thinking about how you would do something differently," said Feger. "Giving consumers some kind of action plan to say, 'This is how we will move forward.'"

4. Be prepared for backlash—and backlash to backlash. "Brands need to nowadays and always be prepared for backlash and backlash to backlash, and have some processes in place to be agile in their responses," Canaves said. This means not assuming a campaign is "done" once it launches.

5. Consider more collaborative approaches. "Brands have to increasingly accept that they don't control their narratives or their campaigns in the way that they used to," Canaves said. "Maybe they're better served not creating these one-way ad campaigns and instead engaging users in their campaigns using more user-generated content, influencers, strategies that really will speak to their audiences."

Listen to the full episode

This article was prepared with the assistance of generative AI tools to support content organization, summarization, and drafting. All AI-generated contributions have been reviewed, fact-checked, and verified for accuracy and originality by EMARKETER editors. Any recommendations reflect EMARKETER’s research and human judgment.

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