Did American Eagle create this "controversy" to drive sales?

Hear me out. Yes, I am the kind of person that looks for conspiracy in almost anything but this is largely because especially in the past 10 years I feel as though the media is actively working on duping the public rather than informing them.

I don't stay up to date on news but every now and then something new and stupid will get brought to my attention and this thing with the jeans and the very pretty actress was unavoidable in my very limited news cycle. As predicted, one side was FOR IT! and the other side was AGAINST IT! Right along party lines. The smart ones stayed quiet about it.

But as this is all going on and the people who are calling for a boycott of American Eagle do so, there is an army of people that are now saying they are definitely going to buy AE jeans... why? Is it because there is any difference between various jeans manufacturers? I don't think that is the case. They behave this way because they are programmed to and I say this about liberals and conservatives alike.

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I saw a few videos that I presume were from TikTok - which I don't use and have never used - that were absolutely outraged about this advertising campaign and then of course some news stations started to talk about it as well. The usual accusations of racism and white supremacy and the how the wordplay on "genes" was inappropriate and insensitive.

Honestly, this is all really stupid to get upset about because who hasn't thought about the two words being homonyms?

But here is the part where I think that this is not being addressed by American Eagle because I think that they may have actually played a part in the "controversy's" creation. Just think about how effective this would be as far as free advertising is concerned? The people who are genuinely upset about this ad, and I am happy I do not know any such people, were probably never going to buy anything from this company anyway, but AE may have had a board room meeting about how the response from a liberal "boycott" has played out very well for a number of companies in the past such as that pillow guy who was a big time Trump supporter.

By the way I tried out one of those pillows at a festival of sorts and I don't get how anyone can call those the "best pillows," I thought they felt lumpy and weird.

Getting back to the crazy things that people were putting online about the "Great jeans" advertisement and how it quickly became akin to Nazi Germany kind of feels like par for the course as far as absurd identity politics are concerned, doesn't it? We immediately jump from pretty girl in jeans that was paid to do it to *American Eagle are Nazis!"

How can anyone take that seriously?

Well I go to the local bar here called The Elks Lodge and to say that this organization is overwhelmingly conservative as far as the patrons are concerned is an understatement. While I consider myself to be one of the voices of reason in there and avoid political conversations of any sort, the talk of the town has been American Eagle jeans and a friend of mine came in with hew pair of jeans on and was applauded by some of the others.

This herd mentality doesn't appeal to me just because it is the herd I identify with the most. My jeans are generally Wal-Mart or Goodwill because they are cheaper and I don't think there is any difference between one manufacturer and the next.

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Sydney Sweeney is definitely uniquely attractive - this is a given - but her being pretty isn't enough to really boost sales though is it?... but a free advertising viral marketing campaign is and now talk about this is everywhere. Is it really inconceivable that American Eagle orchestrated this on their own? Could it be possible that they themselves put the word out there and even paid some influencers to get upset about it and then "shared" the content with thousands of bots to ensure it went viral?

I'm a big believer in the dead internet theory and feel as though any company would manipulate the people as much as they possibly could because at the end of the day that is kind of one of the core tenets of marketing isn't it?

What do you think? Am I nuts to think this?