Blue Jeans, Mimetic Theory and the Labubu Effect
What Sydney Sweeney, plush toys, and stock surges reveal about the culture of imitation.
Sydney Sweeney spiked a stock price in a pair of jeans. Labubu—the bug-eyed plush gremlin—triggered chaos on TikTok and resale wars across continents. What do these viral frenzies have in common? Mimetic desire. We don’t desire in a vacuum. We desire what others desire. This isn’t just another trend piece—it’s a look at how marketing exploits something deeper: our collective craving to copy, belong, and buy.
Sydney Sweeny in American Eagle Fall Campaign.
We’re finally out of the bootie era! Not just because the Kardashians have contoured theirs into oblivion or because Lauren Sánchez took the Sabrina Salerno silhouette to uncanny new heights (Google “Boys, Boys, Boys” if you're lost).
No, the pivot from bottoms to boobs came courtesy of an unlikely market signal: Sydney Sweeney in American Eagle denim.
The actress’s “Great Jeans” campaign didn’t just break the internet—it rattled the markets. In a mid-summer rally that felt more like a meme-stock fever dream than fashion PR, $AEO soared 12% in a single trading day. And hedge fund bros? Fried from war charts and interest rate noise loudly welcomed the shift. A cheeky, cleavage-forward market correction.
And this wasn’t just viral heat. Sweeney co-designed “The Sydney Jean”, a butterfly-stamped limited edition with 100% of profits going to “Crisis Text Line”, supporting survivors of domestic violence.
Sweeney co-designed “The Sydney Jean”.
But the Sweeney-induced volatility play wasn’t just a thirst trap—it was a full-blown sentiment reset, transmiting out cultural shockwaves. Outrage followed, as it always does, from the perpetually offended, the chronically correct, and everyone else racking up likes and moral clout.
What began as a question of tone, morality and overt sexuality (“Launching a pair of jeans with the hope of combating domestic violence and then immediately making the campaign vid all about a woman's t-ts is the most r-tarded, gross marketing decision. You people are rearing whole legions of brain maggots, oh my god,” one user tweeted) quickly escalated. The cheeky play on “jeans” and “genes” mutated into Nazi references, racial dog whistles, and the kind of manufactured culture war chaos we now expect when fashion, finance, sexuality and good will collide.
In the ad, Sweeney, 27, stands in jeans and a denim jacket, musing:
"Genes are passed down from parents to offspring…My jeans are blue," she says, flashing her blue eyes.
A harmless joke? To some. But to the outrage machine, it was a dog whistle for eugenics accusations of “Nazi propaganda” followed in the most unhinged corners of the discourse.
Others had the opposite reaction: “Woke advertising is dead. Sydney Sweeney killed it,” declared one X user. Just like that, the Gen Z bombshell was memed into a cultural ninja—patron saint of the male gaze turned avatar of a moment bored to death by wokeness and other invented social standards.
There’s no such thing as bad PR. That’s something I learned at my first job in a marketing agency. It’s a debatable point, one many would challenge today, but the backlash is often built into the strategy. Controversy cuts through the noise. It sends aftershocks into corners of society too busy scrolling, curating perfection, or sleepwalking through overly sanitized ad campaigns. In a media landscape that rewards reaction, shock is just another form of engagement.
Creative minds aren’t here to play it safe—they’re here to jolt you awake and start the conversation you’ve been scrolling past. If you’re old enough to remember Brooke Shields at 15 whispering “Nothing comes between me and my Calvins”, or the raw, unapologetic visuals from Oliviero Toscani’s Benetton era (1982–2000), then you know: controversy isn’t new.
But the soft, fragile narrative trying to shield us from it? That’s what’s new.
Brooke Shields and Calvin Klein.
“Sydney Sweeney has Great Jeans” tagline.
So what are we really watching here? Brilliant marketing? Botched PR? A viral fever dream destined to disappear next week? Or is this just the ’90s running culture back to the future?
Why are we so quick to rage over a young woman in an ad? Is it because she’s young, successful, and cute or because she has blue eyes?
We didn’t cancel Cardi B for “WAP.” But Sydney Sweeney in a denim ad gets dragged. The double standard is glaring.
If you think campaigns like this are the only root of warped ideals, take a look at your teen’s Instagram, or your own. Everyone’s selling something. And most of it’s worse than jeans and a joke.
Meanwhile, you’re all out here hijacking Labubu drops.
The Plush Apocalypse
Welcome to Labubu World.
Blackpink’s Lisa loves Labubu.
These toothy, slightly unhinged plush gremlins have taken over TikTok, resale platforms, art and the handbags of hypebeasts and fashion girls across Asia, Europe, and finally consumer capitol of the world—America.
