PREMISE OVERLOAD:

#SocialMediaVideoCritique
– This is a strange, and overtly, misstep of a piece.
– The production design seems to suggest a My Little Pony version of Pee-Wee's Playhouse. We are primed for a children's show.
– The main character(s) present their dialogue in a kindergarten teacher… https://t.co/BFusHd2zph

— Justine Bateman (@JustineBateman) July 31, 2025

(Yes, it’s real, all right.)

Not surprisingly, American Eagle has a slightly more measured response:

As Jeff Behar quips after NPR couldn’t track down American Eagle for a quote, “I have close friends in the advertising world, and when I asked one of them about this she joked that American Eagle’s brand strategists and creatives — whether internal or hired from an agency — probably couldn’t be reached for comment by NPR because they were two days into a massive celebratory bender. (‘If they aren’t doing all the cocaine right now, they should be.’) As she emphasized, what matters most is that American Eagle has won the ‘attention war’ in a notoriously fickle and divided media ecosystem.”