Their Milkshake Brought All The Boys To The Store

How KATSEYE helped GAP win the denim war this summer.

“Sydney Sweeney has great jeans.”

Five words that made the internet explode into uproar. In an American Eagle – a US brand known famously for their denim – campaign that released this summer, the white actress with blonde hair and blue eyes, who is renowned for having a

Enter GAP. GAP has been somewhat culturally irrelevant this decade, especially here in the UK. In late 2021, GAP closed all 81 of their stores in the UK and Ireland and continued to struggle in North America. GAP was a relic of late 2000’s style, an era that has yet to fully come back into circulation. The denim brand has long suffered with over-saturation of the market, with brands like Levi’s, Calvin Klein, Good American and yes, American Eagle, all providing to be strong competitors in the current retail climate.

GAP clearly saw the virality of Sydney Sweeney’s campaign and decided to go in the direct opposite direction. Instead of casting the typical white woman beauty standard, the brand needed to step out of the box if they wanted to humiliate American Eagle. Going for a DEI hire would perhaps start a bigger fire and lead them to come across as disingenuous, but copying American Eagle would have the exact same impact. But what if there was a celebrity, or celebrities in fact, that the brand could collaborate with that were a diverse, relevant girl group whose formation rested solely on creating international representation? Oh, and what if they could dance too?

When GAP launched the ‘Better in Denim’ campaign video, soundtracked to Kelis’s Milkshake, it created an earned media value of $1.7 million and the video performed over 100 times better Gap’s normal engagement rates this year. Featuring up-and-coming global girl group KATSEYE, it sparked a viral TikTok dance, gained billions of impressions online and cemented the group as ones to watch. The campaign, which is only 90 seconds long, features the six members decked out in effortlessly styled denim, performing a intricate dance routine to the noughties classic track. Daniela Avanzini, the proclaimed ‘lead dancer’ of the group, stuns as the centre for most of the routine, whilst Lara Raj’s feature in the advert resulted in high praise for spotlighting darker skinned Indian women. Manon Bannerman, Megan Skiendiel, Yoonchae Jeung and Sophia Laforteza all get their respective moment to shine too, and the campaign never feels like it’s telling the story of one woman. Much like KATSEYE’s origin story, GAP’s ‘Better in Denim’ advert is welcoming women of every race, nationality, size and type to join the GAP world.

KATSEYE was created by Hybe and Geffen to be a global girl group, inspired by the K-Pop training methodology. Twenty girls from all across the world competed in a survival show ‘Dream Academy’ to join the group, with six of them debuting. Their members all have varying ethnicities from Swiss-Ghanian, Indian, Chinese-Singaporean, Filipino, Korean and Cuban-Venezuelan, and represent true diversity and inclusion within the music industry. The group’s formation was subject of a successful Netflix documentary; they’ve released two EPs; they have been in campaigns with Fendi and Pandora and most recently won a VMA for Best Push Performance.

There is no better weapon that GAP could’ve used than KATSEYE. Simply just their ethos blows everything about the American Eagle ad out of the water. They cannot be a diversity hire if the group’s whole premise to show international diversity. They are insanely talented and to be honest, KATSEYE are the zeitgeist right now. Whoever decided to hire KATSEYE deserves a lifetime bonus, as the ‘Better in Denim’ campaign pulled GAP out of the trenches. The campaign sparked copycats from Primark, H&M and even caused Levi’s to re-run and push heavier promotion on their Beyonce campaign. American Eagle’s campaign pales in comparison, dated to what will become an obscure meme forgotten in years to come. But GAP have managed to create a cultural moment, one that will hopefully bless them with longevity and relevance.

Words by Jess Cooper.