Is controversy a bad thing?

There was a time not long ago when a company (or celebrity) would do something ‘bad’ and the online mob would swarm them. Hateful comments, bad press, and a barrage of dark rhetoric that made seemingly everyone fold completely. People would get fired, entire companies would apologize, you get the idea. It felt like everyone was walking on egg-shells and submitting to the mob of politically correct behaviour.

And don’t get me wrong. People who break laws or commit atrocities should absolutely be put through the crucible. But we’re talking controversy where no one was harmed in the matter. We’re talking about a wild story of a blonde girl in jeans, and what we can learn from it.

Let’s get into it.

Sydney Sweeney does, at least in her American Eagle ad. So ‘good,’ in fact, that she became a recent source of controversy. Not over a role in a film, or something she did in her personal life. American Eagle ran a campaign recently “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans,” and the play on words is that it’s referring to her genes. As in she has great genetics.

This then turned into a massive controversy. When put nicely, the ad is tone-deaf. When put harshly, she’s a “Nazi.”

What is the issue? Doesn’t matter, because whatever it is, people are complaining, hard. So instead of making it about the issue, let’s explore the story and then get into the lessons.

Again, Sydney Sweeney’s are.

Because you know who’s not complaining? American Eagle. Their stock rallied ~25% (briefly) seemingly overnight (value of about $1B). It’s been up and down since, but still, tremendous impact from a single ad campaign.

How did American Eagle respond to the controversy?

An Instagram post where they apologized to absolutely no one.

What happened to the apologies? The CEO resigning over this? Didn’t happen.

Why not?

If you added a billion dollars to the market cap, would you say sorry?

Money really matters now (didn’t it always?) and the market’s perceptions have changed. For example, here are a few comments from the same post:

Was the controversy bad for American Eagle? Not in this case.

So what does all this have to do with you and I? People on the come-up working hard, and constantly wrestling with the idea that we come off cringe or desperate or whatever else makes us self-conscious? So self-conscious that we hold ourselves back.

We’re not (even) playing on any of the issues above. We’re not having people call us ‘nazi’ or being accused of pushing a “white is right” agenda like what AE is being accused of (I think).

But, there’s still something we can all take away from this.

The ‘cringe’ we feel, that stops us from posting or promoting ourselves and our brands, is (on a much smaller scale), folding to the invisible mob before it’s even formed.

The backlash that we’re a loser or we’re wrong or we’re whatever stops us from doing something. Did American Eagle know their ad would create this controversy? I guarantee it came up in their meetings at least a few times. Didn’t stop them.

If everything we do perfectly fits the today’s idea of ‘correctness,’ then how do we stand out? How are we different than any other marketing department afraid of what the mob might say?

The fact is that we’re not. And I can guarantee you that it’s a confidence issue many young business people face. I, admittedly, worry about how I come off more than most.

I’m not one to tell you what to do, but I can illustrate a few examples of how I see it.

Companies feel calling out competitors is bad. At my day job, we called a competitor out hard, and made a point of targeting them. Our competitor is ConvertKit, and we did a “Convert to beehiiv kit” campaign with huge bonuses for anyone moving to us from them.

It’s easy to think that different won’t work. If it was so good, why isn’t everyone doing it? Liquid Death put water into heavy metal inspired cans and sold it by doing high-octane stunts and sports on Instagram. Everything about this was unconventional. Their slogan for a while was “murder your thirst.” It was intense. They’re now worth over a billion dollars.

Does everything need high production value? Does it need to feel professional? Prolific musician and producer Jon Bellion, kept his come-back low key. He invited people to his pre-launch manually, and didn’t have a website. He had a forum that looked like it was from the 90s. Did people think this super low-fi, low production value method was cringe or tacky, and that he was a washed up loser? Surely some did (everyone’s got haters). He’s been winning anyway.

There are so many more examples of this, but you get the idea.

In closing, I want to bring back an analogy I shared with someone years ago.

In life, we operate as if there are a set of rules, and act as if there’s an eye in the sky watching our every move. Judging us. I think of it as some invisible man who’s like a judge.

Like if you’re driving and sitting at a red light. There are no cameras. You can see miles into the distance and there are no cars, no people, nothing. Do you wait for the light to turn green? Why? That’s the invisible man in action, and if yours convinces you to wait till the light’s green, you are horribly Canadian.

Jokes aside, is your invisible man based on your ideals, or is it acting like the mob that holds you back? Is the mob really there? Will something really happen?

Only one way to find out.

Thanks again for reading!

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